On the 21 September 1922 an eclipse of the sun passed across the centre of Australia providing optimum conditions for observations.

The scientific community used this opportunity to confirm Einstein's prediction that light passing the sun would be bent by gravity, by 1.76 seconds of arc. As a result a number of eclipse expeditions made their way across Australia in August 1922. Australian expeditions made observations at Wollal in Western Australia, Cordillo Downs, in the 'Centre', Goondiwindi and Stanhope in Queensland, and Grafton in New South Wales.

The Adelaide party, under the direction of George Dodwell, set up their equipment on a sheep station, run by the Beltana Pastoral Company, at Cordillo Downs. Mr. Kennedy used pack camels to transport the telescopes and other instruments some 400 miles from the nearest rail at Lyndhurst Siding to the remote station.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, October 2008

References
Campbell, W. W., 'The Total Eclipse of the Sun, September 21, 1922', Astronomical Society of the Pacific, provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System, May 2008
Catalogue record, University of Malbourne Archives, http://app1.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cgi-bin/mua-search?tdetails=3214;imgdetails=3214, accessed April, 2008
Haynes, Raymond, Haynes, Roslynn, Malin, David, McGee, Richard, Explorers of the Southern Sky, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996

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