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From:
Subject: Re: [AVG] C.J. Tyers
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 19:25:14 -0500


Hi Linda,

This is a very important issue that you have raised.
The idea that 'truth' and 'fact' occur in newspapers has long been upheld. Everyone should remember that journalists are just that - people earning a living through writing transient pieces of entertainment. They are not historians and do not care if some small 'details' are not quite right. These small details are often then regurgitated as fact for years to come. Tyers is a case in point as he is a known figure to whom all sorts of gallant deeds may be attributed, whilst the Hunters do not have the backing of a political or official life to make them newsworthy in the eyes of the newsmakers. Quite often journalists create a story from information dumped in front of them, without any knowledge or research of their own, or any idea of the adjustments to fact that they are responsible for.
All historians should remember that newspapers as primary sources is a valid concept only if the article was written at the time of the event. Clearly the article on Tyers was not.
By all means enjoy the article but use it as a starting point and verify all information.

Sorry if that's too off topic Linda. Must go. My other half has threatened to pull the soapbox out from under me!

Best wishes,

Jenny



>This is the first time I have come across a claim that Tyers "surveyed a
>route across the mountains" (as quoted today on the net, don't have the
>exact article to hand). Tyers made three attempts to get into Gippsland to
>take up his post I have no knowledge
>of Tyers ever crossing the ranges, unless this reference is to much later,
>around Omeo, when the way across was almost a two-lane highway.
>
>Tyers' early survey work, before he came to Gippsland, appears to deserve
>accolades (he is said to have laid out, on the quick look I had of the
>article, the NSW-Victoria border. Could I have read it wrong - I thought he
>did the Victoria-South Australia border). But I would hope his abortive
>attempt to get over the mountains (ignoring the bushmen before him), does
>not survive into Tyers folklore.
>

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