The last explorer
Subtitle: Hubert Wilkins Australia's unknown hero
By: Simon Nasht
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Sydney
Language: eng
Number of pages: 346
ISBN-13: 9780733622427
Subjects: Explorers; Biography; War photographers; Aerial exploration; Discovery and exploration; Discoveries in geography; Aerial Exploration
Description: Hubert Wilkins was truly the last - and one of the greatest - explorers. And much more than that. Born in South Australia, he spent much of his life outside 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 frontline 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.
Notes: Originally published in Australia by Hodder Australia, 2005.-Includes index.-Bibliography: p. 336-337.
Table of contents: title: In the blood; title: True adventure thrills; title: An adventurer's apprenticeship; title: The mad photographers; title: A man apart; title: The great race; title: Unsuccessfully south; title: Drought lands; title: Undiscovered Australia; title: Ultima Thule; title: Over the top; title: Around the world in twenty-one days; title: The suicide club; title: The voyage of the Nautilus; title: King of the Antarctic; title: The restless years; title: Ninety degrees north, 3 August 1958; title: The final journey, 17 March 1959; title: Epilogue: The weatherman.