Following the establishment of the colony of South Australia in 1836, the region between the coast and the Murray River was rapidly being settled by squatters selecting large runs for sheep grazing.

He set about assembling his party which was to include Thomas Townsend, Assistant Surveyor, seven convicts and his private servant, also a dray, nine bullocks and two packhorses.

His equipment included a 3+1⁄2 inches (8.9 cm) theodolite, for astronomical work a sextant, a compass and circumferentor and two sets of surveying chains.

The newly appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands Tyers arrived in Gippsland in early 1844, and was soon involved in legal, moral and cultural problems of a different sort than what he found in Werten District the year before.

On 11 February 1844, he notes in his diary: Some time later a boating party on the Gippsland Lakes, which included Tyers, was searching for a spot to land to gather dry sticks.

A local grazier Dunderdale records: The worst killing during Tyers' period happened on a tributary of the Snowy River between today's Orbost and Marlo.

[This quote needs a citation] Policemen Dan and Walsh, under Tyers' command were reported to be culpable, a local grazier Warman in his journal records "as long as such persons as Messrs W. Dana and Walsh are in command of the native police nothing can be done to stop their extermination for the native blacks are the most cruel blood thirsty wretches alive, and nothing gives them so much pleasure as shooting and tomahawking the defenceless savages".

[This quote needs a citation] Tyers was responsible for inaugurating government in Gippsland and virtually became 'King' of the huge isolated area, where lawlessness had been common and the Aboriginals hostile.

He regulated the liquor trade and on his recommendations two police stations and a Court of Petty Sessions were established and two justices of the peace appointed.