Eliza Stewart (nee Barnett) emigrated to Australia in 1913 accompanied by three of her four children and her sister Sarah Barnett. The children with her were Isabella (Isa), William (Willie) and Sarah (Bunty). Eliza-Jane's husband, William Stewart, and their oldest son Alexander (Alec), had sailed to Australia a year before and had settled in Queensland.
The diary starts with the family leaving Edinburgh on 30 October 1913.