William Moore Ferrar is best known to students of Australian literature as the author of Artabanzanus: The Demon of the Great Lake. Recently, William Moore Ferrar's descendants made available his diaries and farm journals, commencing in 1840 with his youth and departure from Ireland, through to 1897. These, though incomplete in span, record his life and farming practices in Tasmania, books he owned or read, his reactions, and original poetry and prose writing.