20. Sent the message to Dupain in case Len and George should not be there. Then, I hope, Dupain will take the necessary steps. For clarity's sake, I should have said that Dupain is the representative of B-P in Cairns, I suppose. After the foregoing had been completed, things began to happen with a certain amount of rapidity but I shall finish the day off before getting to that. Mr. Spence arrived on schedule at 10.30 and took us first to the Botanic Gardens to call on Dr. White, under whom Len served his apprenticeship. White was away on a protracted vacation and we were unable to see him though we met his two i/c, Francis, and his two assistants, Blake and Smith. From there we went to see Jack Burke, the ship operator, about whom more later. Then Spence took us to lunch at Tattersall's Club, the local bookmaking place, then to a very lovely spot, One Tree Hill, from which we had an excellent view of the whole of Brisbane and of the mountains to the south and west. Our next call was on Dr. Mack, director of the Queensland Museum, most helpful and keenly interested in the expedition. The museum itself was in woeful shape and Mack has years of work laid out in front of him to bring it into some form of modernity. He has two assistants, Vernon and McCanna, the former of whom will join us at Portland Roads and make that part of the trip with us. Both are good lads, from first observation, but they will fit in the story in due course. Now, in order to get things straightened out, I have to recapitulate our plans to some extent. Our freight was to be sent to Cairns where we were to repack certain parts of it, getting the whole of it on the Burke ship "Wandana", and dropping at Cooktown and Portland Roads that part of it which we did not need for the Tip. The Wandana was to leave Brisbane on March 6th and Cairns on March 11th. Our freight reached Brisbane on January 26th. That seemed clear and easy to manage at first but what happened was that the rail strike stopped any form of transportation of freight other than by sea and the "Time" was the only steamer available. She has been a jinx ship; her round trip started last October when she left Brisbane for Sydney and return, after which she was to proceed north to Cairns. She had an accident in Sydney Harbor and had to be flooded. Then her crew went on strike after the ship had been salvaged in Sydney. Finally she got to Brisbane and was to leave last night, as I said, with our freight buried under some thousands of tons of other freight, but she was delayed by the seamen who fell overboard. She is not due in Cairns until the 15th or 16th of March, four days at least after the Wandana was supposed to leave, so unless something happens, that connection will not be made and there will be a loss of six to eight weeks before we can get to Thursday Island. However, there is a loop-hole. Owing to the coal strike, Wandana is out of fuel though apparently Time has some. Wandana today is at Cairns, southbound, and succeeded in getting enough (ten tons, Jack Burke told us) to get to Townsville. However, there is no coal in Townsville and Wandana may be held there, still southbound, until after the rail strike is ended and coal is carried that far north by the trains again. It seems reasonably certain that Wandana will be delayed in her southbound trip and consequently will not reach Cairns northbound on the 6th, as scheduled. The whole thing boils down to the question "Will Wandana be delayed long enough for Time to reach Cairns and for us to unpack and repack?" We can do that part of the job on board Wandana, if only we can get the stuff there by Time before Wandana arrives. There was a telegram in from Len on our return reading: Jeffry Tate, Lennon's Hotel, Brisbane Dupain advises your expected arrival tomorrow night please try bring me one pound cigarette tobacco from burphil Len.