The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins Australia’s Unknown Hero
ISBN 0733618316 Hodder RRP$35.00
Release October 2005
Hubert Wilkins was truly the last—and one of the greatest—explorers. And much more.
Born in South Australia, he spent much 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 worked for the US military and intelligence—and in 1958 he was buried at sea at the North Pole by the US Navy.
Author Info
Simon Nasht has worked as a journalist in newspapers, and on radio and TV, and most recently has worked as a documentary maker in Europe and Australia.