The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins - Australia's Unknown Hero by Simon Nasche
I picked up the 2007 second edition of this book (first published in 2005) for $7.50 from my favourite Moonee Ponds second hand bookshop last month (July 2014) and it soon bubbled to the top of the pile. I have now finished the read (Wed 27 August) and I could hardly put it down once I had started. I can't believe that I had never heard of this authentic Boys Own adventurer who was born in remote outback South Australia to a poor farming family in 1888 and who went on to become a national hero. Sadly his contributions now seem to have been largely forgotten by the Australian public.
Here's how the booktopia entry describes the book:
Hubert Wilkins was truly the last - and one of the greatest - explorers.
Born in South Australia, he spent most of his life out of the country - but always remained an Australian.
He travelled through every continent, and was a pioneer of aviation. He survived crashes and disasters, firing squads and sabotage, living long enough to be honoured by kings, presidents and dictators.
He was a front-line photographer in World War I - and was twice decorated. He took the first ever film of battle, and took the first moving images from an aircraft.
He was the first man to fly across the Arctic Ocean, the first to fly in the Antarctic - and the first to fly from America to Europe across the then unknown Arctic (the New York Times called this 'the greatest flight in history').
In the 1930s he spent several years travelling in western Queensland and the Northern Territory ' where many of his observations and views were ahead of their time. In the later years of his life, he did work for the US military and intelligence - and in 1958 was buried at sea at the North Pole by the US Navy.
Here is a brief summary of some of his many adventures and achievements (p 308 of the book)
In all Wilkins had made 33 expeditions to polar regions and explored every continent. He had sledged and flown, sailed and walked across more unknown man than any man in history. he had been knighted by the kings of England and Italy, awarded by the great societies, honoured by Stalin and U.S. presidents. The other giants of the the golden age of polar exploration considered him without peer.
it is a sad inditement of Australia's general lack of recognition that Barry Jones' otherwise wonderful Dictionary of World Biography gives him a scant paragraph.
I have printed off a large scale portrait and am going to hang it in the passageway by way of homage to a man who was larger than life.
I recommend this book for any Australian interested in our twentieth century history and our key players on the world stage.
Now here's some trivia. Wilkin's real name was George Hubert Wilkins. His biography explains that, as he was to be knighted by King George V, he requested the king that he be known as Sir Hubert Wilkins - his explanation was that he did not presume to use the King's name. So for the rest of his life, he was known as Sir Rupert Wilkins!
Now you have probably heard of Lassiter's Lost Reef - the fabulously large gold reed purportedly found by Lewis Hubert Lasseter (1880-1931) in either 1911 or 1897 (depending on which of his stories you believe. Yes, another Hubert middle name. In later life, he became known as Rupert Howard Bell Lasseter.
And once again the definitive book is one by Ion Idriess, namely Lasseter's Last Ride. And I've got an old edition somewhere. Time to read it again - sounds like a plan!
I picked up the 2007 second edition of this book (first published in 2005) for $7.50 from my favourite Moonee Ponds second hand bookshop last month (July 2014) and it soon bubbled to the top of the pile. I have now finished the read (Wed 27 August) and I could hardly put it down once I had started. I can't believe that I had never heard of this authentic Boys Own adventurer who was born in remote outback South Australia to a poor farming family in 1888 and who went on to become a national hero. Sadly his contributions now seem to have been largely forgotten by the Australian public.
Here's how the booktopia entry describes the book:
Hubert Wilkins was truly the last - and one of the greatest - explorers.
Born in South Australia, he spent most of his life out of the country - but always remained an Australian.
He travelled through every continent, and was a pioneer of aviation. He survived crashes and disasters, firing squads and sabotage, living long enough to be honoured by kings, presidents and dictators.
He was a front-line photographer in World War I - and was twice decorated. He took the first ever film of battle, and took the first moving images from an aircraft.
He was the first man to fly across the Arctic Ocean, the first to fly in the Antarctic - and the first to fly from America to Europe across the then unknown Arctic (the New York Times called this 'the greatest flight in history').
In the 1930s he spent several years travelling in western Queensland and the Northern Territory ' where many of his observations and views were ahead of their time. In the later years of his life, he did work for the US military and intelligence - and in 1958 was buried at sea at the North Pole by the US Navy.
Here is a brief summary of some of his many adventures and achievements (p 308 of the book)
In all Wilkins had made 33 expeditions to polar regions and explored every continent. He had sledged and flown, sailed and walked across more unknown man than any man in history. he had been knighted by the kings of England and Italy, awarded by the great societies, honoured by Stalin and U.S. presidents. The other giants of the the golden age of polar exploration considered him without peer.
it is a sad inditement of Australia's general lack of recognition that Barry Jones' otherwise wonderful Dictionary of World Biography gives him a scant paragraph.
I have printed off a large scale portrait and am going to hang it in the passageway by way of homage to a man who was larger than life.
I recommend this book for any Australian interested in our twentieth century history and our key players on the world stage.
Now here's some trivia. Wilkin's real name was George Hubert Wilkins. His biography explains that, as he was to be knighted by King George V, he requested the king that he be known as Sir Hubert Wilkins - his explanation was that he did not presume to use the King's name. So for the rest of his life, he was known as Sir Rupert Wilkins!
Now you have probably heard of Lassiter's Lost Reef - the fabulously large gold reed purportedly found by Lewis Hubert Lasseter (1880-1931) in either 1911 or 1897 (depending on which of his stories you believe. Yes, another Hubert middle name. In later life, he became known as Rupert Howard Bell Lasseter.
And once again the definitive book is one by Ion Idriess, namely Lasseter's Last Ride. And I've got an old edition somewhere. Time to read it again - sounds like a plan!
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