George Hubert Wilkins' epic flights in 1920s/30s first to explore the geography/climate of Arctic and Antarctica
George Hubert Wilkins began his interest in climate as a boy on his father's farm at South Australia's Mount Bryan East.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Aviator is only one of the claims to international fame of George Hubert Wilkins. Add explorer, naturalist, photographer, geographer and climatologist.
Born at Mount Bryan East in South Australia as the 13th child of a farmer, Wilkins experienced drought’s devastation and developed an interest in climatic phenomena.
Reared as a Methodist, he studied engineering part time at the South Australian School of Mines and Industries, and pursued photography and cinematography in Adelaide and Sydney. In 1908, he sailed for England to work for the Gaumont Film Co.
But, as a newspaper reporter and cameraman who learned to fly and try aerial photography, Wilkins’ life turned into an extraordinary global journey.
One part of that journey was being Australian official military photographer of fighting on World War I's western front.
In 1919, he entered the England to Australia air race but his aircraft, a Blackburn Kangaroo, experienced engine failure and crashlanded in Crete.
Wilkins returned to his interest in geography, climate and the other aspects of the natural world. Engaging in further polar exploration, in 1920-21, he made his first visit to the Antarctic.
When a projected Antarctic expedition failed through lack of funds in 1926, he began a programme of Arctic exploration by air. The culminated in his great feat of air navigation: in 1928, with Carl Ben Eielson as pilot, he flew from Alaska, eastward over the Arctic Sea to Spitsbergen (Svalbard), Norway.
Wilkins carried out the first aerial explorations of the Antarctic in 1928-29 with major influence on future exploration. During 1937 and 1938, he played a major role in searching for the Russian aviator Sigismund Levanevsky who disappeared on a flight from Moscow to Fairbanks, Alaska. In these years, Wilkins also advanced techniques of flying by moonlight, made scientific observations and experimented with telepathy.
