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| The entrance to the State Library of Victoria where the diary was recently donated |
When the Kimberley Plan was stalled, Critchley Parker Jr. and Caroline Isaacson redirected Steinberg to Tasmania as a possibility for Jewish settlement and specifically the western part of the island at Port Davey.
Critchley Parker was a righteous gentile who was in love with a Jewish woman - the journalist Caroline Isaacson. In January 1941, Parker organized an expedition to Port Davey with Steinberg, Isaacson and scientists to survey the land to see if it was viable for a Jewish refuge in order to save European Jews from the Holocaust. Parker returned by himself the next year and he died on the site, leaving behind a diary with visions of Le'Corbusier buildings and a stadium to hold the Tasmian games. The diary was given to Caroline Isaacson after having been found next to his body, however, it went missing for decades.
Just one week before our departure we were notified by the The State Library of Victoria's Greg Gerrand (who is the coordinator of collections) that Tony Isaacson (Caroline's grandson)had donated the missing diary upon the death of his father.
The State Library of Victoria had a transcription of the diary but the original had been thought to be lost. Just two weeks before leaving on our trip to Australia, Louis found out that both Peter Isaacson and his sister Joan had past away in April of this year. This made us feel like our timing was off because it would have been nice to meet the children of Caroline Isaacson. However, our timing couldn't haven't been better because it turned out that Peter Isaacson had the diary all along. Tony's donation happened just a few days before our departure to Melbourne and then on our second day we were able to see it. So instead of working with the transcript that was made in 1997 (as we had expected), we got to inspect the original! It sent chills through me to see Critchley's handwriting and knowing that these were his last words.
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