James Larmer arrived in NSW in 1829 having accepted a post in the Surveyor-General’s Department. He was appointed Assistant Surveyor on 1 January 1835 and was then selected to accompany the Surveyor-General, Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, on his second expedition to discover whether the Darling River flowed into the Murray. Over the nest 30 years Larmer carried out a number of surveys in the counties of Cumberland and Northumberland ­— mainly around Sydney and its outlying areas.

Sometime between 1835 and 1853, Larmer transcribed Aboriginal vocabularies for various regions in NSW. The first page is titled: ‘Larmer’s Native Vocabulary transmitted to the Surveyor General 24^th Nov 1853’. The regions included in the vocabulary are Brisbane Water–Tuggerah Beach Lakes; Hunter River, Brisbane Water and Newcastle, Bateman’s Bay; Ulladulla; Braidwood; Yeo Yeo and Narraburra; Upper Calara or Lachlan; Junction of Lachlan and Murrumbidgee. Localities on the northern and southern shores of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) are also included, with Indigenous placenames alongside the English names that were in use at the time of writing. The Mitchell Library holds a number of early vocabularies in both manuscript and printed volumes.