Critchley Parker, aged only 31, trekked into the Tasmanian wilderness in an effort to find suitable land for future Jewish settlements far away from the bloodshed of Europe.
He was not Jewish himself but he was infatuated with a (married) Jewish journalist named Caroline Isaacson, and was determined to help find a permanent peaceful refuge for those fleeing the violent horrors of WW2.
During his fateful trek near Port Davey he discovered a small pond with swans, called poynduk in the local Ninene language. Critchley hoped to name the settlement Poynduk but this was not to be.
Critchley had had TB which had left his lungs and overall health in a weakened state; the weather turned suddenly and he was caught in bucketing rain for weeks that triggered pleurisy. He had planned to light a signal fire to alert the fisherman to come pick him up but he ran out of matches, ran out of food, ran out of time.
But he never ran out of plans for the future settlement of Poynduk; he wrote in his copious notes that he wished it to be based on the "principals of racial tolerance and international brotherhood", to have universities open to students of all colours, medical facilities, schools, hydro-electric power plants.
Critchley planned for the Tasmanian Games to be hosted at Poynduk each year; the games would celebrate not just sports but poetry, plays, weaving, music and pottery.
Alas, with his early death in the wilderness Critchley's plans for Poynduk were dashed for good.
Further reading -
“Poynduk”: the Extravagant, Impossible (and Understandable) Dreams of Critchley Parker
