Lyon arrived in the Swan River Colony, Western Australia, as a settler in 1829 and 'was moved to take up the Aboriginal cause by the tragic events he saw unfolding around him' (Henry Reynolds, This Whispering in Our Hearts (1998): 71). Lyon had friendly contact with the local indigenous people and studied their language and customs. His A Glance at the Manners, and Language of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Western Australia; with a Short Vocabulary: 23rd March, 1833 published in the Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal included a list of the language of the indigenous people of the Perth area in Western Australia. He published letters and articles (not separately indexed in AustLit) about the unenlightened treatment of the indigenous people in the Gazette until he left the colony. He argued with the government of the colony and the Western Australian Agricultural Society for reconciliation and against violent action. Reynolds calls a speech Lyon gave to settlers in June 1833 '...one of the most distinguished humanitarian speeches delivered in colonial Australia ...' (77). Lyon was initially successful in persuading the colonists against punitive action, but increasing violence and what he described as a plan to justify invasion by rendering the indigenous people 'odious to the public at home, by representing them in the worst light' (Lyon quoted by Reynolds, 72) changed settlers' opinions.
Lyon was an outsider in the small Swan River colony. He was an eccentric and his 'passionate involvement in the Aboriginal cause' (84) set him apart. He was expelled from the Western Australian Agricultural Society in November 1834 and criticised in the Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal in that year.
At the end of 1834 or beginning of 1835, Lyon left the colony for Mauritius where he lived before returning to Australia settling in New South Wales in 1839. As late as 30 November 1839 an adverse column (not separately indexed in AustLit) was published in the Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal on him and a satirical letter about his various names in December. He published Australia: An Appeal to the World on Behalf of the Younger Branch of the Family of Shem (1839) in Sydney. The first part of the book consists of his Western Australian articles, letters and speeches. He continued to be an advocate for the indigenous cause. The date and place of his death are unknown.
Source: Henry Reynolds, This Whispering in Our Hearts (1998)
