In the 1990s Strehlow became increasingly curious about the lives of his grandparents, Carl and Frieda Strehlow after discovering the existence of Frieda's diaries, written in old script German, in Berlin and the realisation that this personal record of her life in Hermannsburg, from 1897 and 1908 which revealed previously unknown details of their lives their and happenings in the community and more generally around Central Australia.