Ian Best was doing some important work in his loft at home when he came acrcoss his S. S. Australis slides which were taken on the southbound journey, voyage number 55. This trip started in June 1975 travelling from Southampton to Fremantle, Western Australia.

The ship also called into the island of Crete, then went onto Port Said, Egypt and the next morning the ship traversed the Suez Canal. The passage took between 11 and 16 hours at a speed of around 8 knots. The ship then travelled through the Red Sea and stopped at Djibouti in the "Horn of Africa". This city was a part of the French Territories called ‘Afars and Issas’(back in the seventies), but it is now the Republic of Djibouti. There was then a long journey across the Indian Ocean to Fremantle (Perth), Australia, where Ian and his family left the ship.