MySwag.org The Off-road Camper Trailer Forum

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Carlisle Rogers on September 14, 2013, 06:44:01 AM

Title: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Carlisle Rogers on September 14, 2013, 06:44:01 AM
Burke and Wills are pretty famous, but not too clever.   :'(
Cook is still, erroneously, considered to have discovered Australia about 164 years after Janszoon.  ???

Who is the country's greatest explorer?

Issue 14 of 4WD Touring Australia features stories on Sturt and Burke and Wills, both desert explorers.

Carlisle
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Terry W4 on September 14, 2013, 07:21:57 AM
Ernie Dingo - He said, during on of his TV series whilst sitting on Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour, "They say Captain Cook discovered Australia - funny - we didn't know we wuz lost!"
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: speewa158 on September 14, 2013, 07:45:52 AM
                                    ME  >:D :cheers:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: D4D on September 14, 2013, 07:48:54 AM
(http://blkmav.com/stuff/rc.jpg)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: speewa158 on September 14, 2013, 07:53:16 AM
l am esteemed company ,  ;D
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: GeoffA on September 14, 2013, 07:55:11 AM
l am esteemed company ,  ;D

You are indeed....... ;D
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: speewa158 on September 14, 2013, 08:01:31 AM
Len Beadell  Gunbarrel Hwy  :cup:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: GeoffA on September 14, 2013, 08:04:19 AM
Len Beadell  Gunbarrel Hwy  :cup:

Yep...and many others.... :cup:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: McGirr on September 14, 2013, 08:26:11 AM

Too many to name but the Jardines for exploring the Cape would be up there with the most famous.

Mark
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: GeoffA on September 14, 2013, 08:28:40 AM
Mawson was pretty good....... ;D ;D

Even got his pic on some coloured paper.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: speewa158 on September 14, 2013, 08:29:47 AM
Durack in top end of WA  :cup:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: muzza01 on September 14, 2013, 09:51:21 AM
Kennedy and Leichardt. :cup:


(http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10840/10840-h/favenc-17map.jpg)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: KingBilly on September 14, 2013, 09:57:47 AM
Allan Cunningham

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Cunningham_%28botanist%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Cunningham_%28botanist%29)

KB
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: speewa158 on September 14, 2013, 10:58:57 AM
Major Mitchel , been all over Vic & parts of SA & NSW . lts easier to find a town that dosent have a cairn with his name on it  ;D
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Jeepers Creepers on September 14, 2013, 11:11:51 AM
McGirr gets my vote.  :cheers:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Carlisle Rogers on September 14, 2013, 11:32:18 AM
My personal inspiration:

(http://blkmav.com/stuff/rc.jpg)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: rossm on September 14, 2013, 12:32:36 PM
John Forrest might not be that we'll known in the east but he explored a lot of the western deserts.

I always wonder how Charles Sturt and his party felt  when they got to the mouth of the Murray and found that it didn't flow into an inland sea...disappointed i suspect.

And then they turned around and headed back up the river, against the current and in the middle of summer! In typical Australian explorer style the trip home turned into a nightmare, supplies ran out and Sturt nearly died from starvation and never really recovered his health.

They were amazing men in those days, setting off into the unknown. Today we barely go to the shop without turning on the Gamin!



Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: achjimmy on September 14, 2013, 01:26:01 PM

They were amazing men in those days, setting off into the unknown. Today we barely go to the shop without turning on the Gamin!


Matthew Flinders gets my vote.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: oldmate on September 14, 2013, 01:31:14 PM
(http://blkmav.com/stuff/rc.jpg)


 :cup: :cup:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: pmac on September 14, 2013, 01:45:18 PM
Modern times would have to be the leyland brothers........grew up watching those guys, inspired me from a young age, was hard to concetrate at school on the explorers from 150 years ago :)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Burnsy on September 14, 2013, 02:31:00 PM
Gus (AJ) Luck......... that stumped you all didn't it ;D

His book is great "The Outback Trail"
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: DaveR on September 14, 2013, 05:11:00 PM
Hard to go past this bloke, our biggest achiever without anyone knowing who he was.
George Hubert Wilkins
I am the bloke who takes 6 months to read a book, this guys story was a few weeks, couldn't put it down. He had 2 Tiker Tape Parades in New york in the same year..... Yet, we don't know of him

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Wilkins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Wilkins)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Hairs on September 14, 2013, 05:19:25 PM
(http://blkmav.com/stuff/rc.jpg)

One of the most under rated explorers this great Nation has ever know.
 :cup:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: DaveR on September 14, 2013, 05:27:25 PM
One of the most under rated explorers this great Nation has ever know.
 :cup:
I was once away OS and the only Aussie on the job with a Mob of Canadians.
I took DVD's of his 2 series with me, told the Canadians, if you blokes want to know what the real Australia is, watch this bloke, he is a legend.
It wasn't until the 2nd series DVD's that they realised how full of S#@T I am....... ;D
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Hairs on September 14, 2013, 05:30:23 PM
LOL (http://www.hairfysh.com/images/Icons/Smileys/smiley-laughing011.gif)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: DaveR on September 14, 2013, 05:38:25 PM
How about Bass, who with a mate, took a row boat (an over sized one) out of Port Jackson, and then set of south to find Port Philip Bay.....
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: GeoffA on September 14, 2013, 06:08:32 PM
Hume and Hovell....

Blaxland, Lawson & Wentworth......Sydney would be pretty crowded without them.....

Eyre....

Strzlecki....

There were a few of 'em...

Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Snow on September 14, 2013, 08:51:01 PM
Mrs Snow's great great great Uncle Giles. Ernest Giles that is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Giles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Giles)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: PB on September 14, 2013, 09:09:35 PM
A comprehensive list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_exploration_of_Australia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_exploration_of_Australia)

Stuart is my pick
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Lloyd65 on September 14, 2013, 09:20:06 PM
The Gold Miners
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: doc evil on September 15, 2013, 01:02:02 PM
missing so far, Madigan, Canning, Lindsay, Warburton to name a few.

They were all pioneers who opened up this great country.........for us to follow in their footsteps.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: GeoffA on September 15, 2013, 07:20:52 PM
So, who's it gunna be, Carlisle...?
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: austastar on September 15, 2013, 07:35:05 PM
Hi,
   Gregory!


W.A. boy, surveyor, reached Lake Gregory from the north searching for the inland sea.
Got back to the coast to find the crew had lost the boats, set off from NW W.A. across NT to Qld, down to Cairns on foot and didn't lose a man.


He gets my vote.


cheers
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: speewa158 on September 15, 2013, 09:20:13 PM
Mrs Snow's great great great Uncle Giles. Ernest Giles that is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Giles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Giles)

Snow l have seen his name scratched on Chambers Pillar , Most impressive to know a relative of  . l will shake her hand with pride  :cup:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: SteveandViv on September 15, 2013, 10:51:28 PM
Burke and Wills are pretty famous, but not too clever.   :'(
Cook is still, erroneously, considered to have discovered Australia about 164 years after Janszoon.  ???

Who is the country's greatest explorer?

Issue 14 of 4WD Touring Australia features stories on Sturt and Burke and Wills, both desert explorers.

Carlisle

Gregory IMO, love reading about him.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Carlisle Rogers on September 16, 2013, 07:16:01 AM
Not Burke and Wills!

Otherwise, impossible to say. It's so subjective. What does 'best' mean really? Most ground covered? Most accurate maps? Actually found anything worth finding (that knocks a few off the list)? Didn't completely exaggerate what they did find to coincide with the hypothesis of whoever was funding the expedition in the first place?
Some explorers were (and perhaps still are) derided for 'sympathetic' views of the aboriginals, i.e. the belief that they were human, not beast. I like Francois Peron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_P%C3%A9ron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_P%C3%A9ron)), who invented anthropology and collected over 100,000 natural history specimens from Australia. No other explorer or scientist to date has accomplished anything near that.
He examined the Tasmanian aboriginal people with an academic eye. Thirty years later, none existed. Charles Darwin visited in 1836 and was baffled at how quickly the empire had destroyed the population of an island as big as Ireland.
It's easy to assume that 100 years ago genocide was somehow OK, somehow excusable because of the zeitgeist, but when one man saw things otherwise, he deserves much, much more respect than the co-murderers and ostensible heroes like John Batman and Sir George Arthur.

But, like I said, it all depends entirely on your criteria. I just wanted to see what people thought! Intriguing that everyone has a personal favourite, all for seemingly completely different reasons.

Carlisle

So, who's it gunna be, Carlisle...?
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Redback on September 16, 2013, 09:06:04 AM
You know I would probably guess or assume that none of these blokes would have got anywhere near where they wanted, without the help of the Aboriginal trackers/guides leading them in the direction they wanted to go ;D

In the case of Hume and Hovell, it was Hovell that did most of the work, yet Hume got all the attention, Why??

Baz.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Alan Loy on September 16, 2013, 09:06:08 AM
I would vote for Cook.  His scientific investigations of Australia among many other places changed the European knowledge of the southern hemisphere and lead to the biggest changes in Australia in 40,000 years.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: 4runner on September 16, 2013, 09:21:16 AM
Has every one forgotten Alby Mangles?http://www.myswag.org/Smileys/classic/angry.gif That aside the Leyland Bro's first trip of discovery and the Doco they made and showed at schools. I remeber watching the film to this day.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Redback on September 16, 2013, 09:55:50 AM
I would vote for Cook.  His scientific investigations of Australia among many other places changed the European knowledge of the southern hemisphere and lead to the biggest changes in Australia in 40,000 years.

Not really a great Australian explorer, great English explorer maybe, he spent more time in New Zealand than here.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Alan Loy on September 16, 2013, 11:01:32 AM
OK explorer of Australia not Australian Explorer

In that case what about Sir Douglas Mawson as an Australian explorer
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: SambOz on September 16, 2013, 12:21:13 PM
Alfred William HOWITT , 1830 - 1908 was an adaptable and largely self educated sort of man who achieved a huge amount during his life.

Examples of this notable Australians life can be found in " Come wind, come weather " which most libraries will have. It is a great read and I recommend it !

And in the wiki reference the following summary-

"Howitt was born in Nottingham, England, the son of authors William Howitt and Mary Botham.[1] He came to the Victorian gold fields in 1852 with his father and brother to visit his uncle, Godfrey Howitt. Initially, Howitt was a geologist in Victoria; later, he worked as a gold warden in North Gippsland. Howitt went on to be appointed Police magistrate & Warden Crown Lands Commissioner; later still, he held the position of Secretary of the Mines Department.

In 1861, the Royal Society of Victoria appointed Howitt leader of the Victorian Relief Expedition, with the task of establishing the fate of the Burke and Wills expedition. Howitt was a skilled bushman; he took only the necessary equipment and a small crew on the journey to Cooper Creek. There, on 16 September he found sole survivor John King;[2] Howitt buried Burke and Wills before returning to Melbourne with King. On a follow-up expedition to Cooper Creek in 1862, Howitt recovered the bodies of Burke and Wills[2] for burial at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Howitt collected botanical specimens during his expeditions in north-eastern South Australia, south-western Queensland and western New South Wales; his collections were sent to Baron von Mueller and are now in Melbourne.

Howitt researched the culture and society of Indigenous Australians, in particular kinship and marriage; he was influenced by the theories of evolution and anthropology. Howitt's major work (co-authored with Lorimer Fison) was "Kamilaroi and Kurnai" (1879), which was recognised internationally as a landmark in the development of the modern science of anthropology; this work was used by others, including the twentieth century anthropologist Norman Tindale "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_William_Howitt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_William_Howitt)
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Mallory Black on September 17, 2013, 07:03:05 AM
Matthew Flinders
he would have done a lot more if it wasn't for him being interned by the French for years and years
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: FZJ on September 17, 2013, 07:35:39 AM
My sister in law isnt the sharpest.She told us she was amazed how explorers like "Black and Decker" did what they did!
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: DaveR on September 17, 2013, 03:27:07 PM
Matthew Flinders

And if he would have done a lot more if it wasn't for him being interned by the French for years and years.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: fuji on September 23, 2013, 07:30:19 PM
Tom Kruse! Not really an explorer but what a great man. If you have time read the book.
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: speewa158 on September 23, 2013, 08:15:15 PM
On you Fuji  that is a top book . Makes us look silly compared to the 2weekly trip he did again & again  :cup:
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: GeoffA on September 23, 2013, 09:33:49 PM
Yep. A very interesting read.....
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: xcvator on September 23, 2013, 09:49:30 PM
Don't think Lasseter has been mentioned yet for his exploits  :'(
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Raym on October 26, 2013, 07:33:28 PM
For those who like their explorer history.

http://www.leichhardt.qm.qld.gov.au/
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Chesapeake on October 26, 2013, 09:23:49 PM
My sister in law isnt the sharpest.She told us she was amazed how explorers like "Black and Decker" did what they did!
They would have discovered more country if they  had a longer extension chord
Title: Re: Best Australian explorer?
Post by: Steffo1 on October 27, 2013, 10:21:28 AM
Steffo1 & wife when she goes in to GPS Override Mode while navigating.
I kid you not.
We came out of some scrub one trip to find the owner of the property we'd wandered on to having a cuppa. He was surprised to see us, to say the least, & said to me "I didn't even realise you could get a vehicle through that part of the hills"
I still can't find the "Reset" button!