Abstract
The nineteenth-century Moravian mission field of Southern Australia has received little attention in Moravian narratives or in contemporary historical analyses. Although it was relatively small in terms of converts, and short-lived in comparison to some other Moravian missionary fields, it had a profound impact on indigenous Australians and the colonial history of Australia. Tins essay provides an analysis of the Southern Australian Moravian mission field by examining three peculiarities of the field: the lack of native literature; the payment of a missionary by another church; and, the "double positions" held by Moravians as both missionaries and as governmental officials. These three peculiarities themselves diverge from the dominant Moravian missionary narrative, and thus, through their analysis, a more complex and nuanced history of this mission field is presented.
