GEORGE ‘CHINESE’
MORRISON (1862–1920)
His eclectic adventures include
a solo 3200km summer trek
from the Gulf of Carpentaria
to Melbourne – on the route
that killed Burke and Wills.
He arrived in 123 days, calling
it “a pleasant excursion”.LADY JANE FRANKLIN
(1791–1875)
In an age when many women
were limited to needlework
or domestic duties, Franklin
broke the mould. A keen
traveller, she sailed, climbed,
led expeditions and created
social change in Tasmania.HAROLD FLETCHER (1903–1996)
Harold Oswald Fletcher was curator
of fossils at the Australian Museum
from 1941, and its deputy director
from 1957 to 1967. Determined not
to be deskbound, he became a keen
expeditioner, travelling to the top of
Mount Kosciuszko, across the
Simpson Desert and to Antarctica.Robyn
Dav idson
(1950–)
THE ‘CAMEL LADY’, Robyn Davidson,
with her beloved dog, Diggity, and four
camels, trekked 2700km across some of
Australia’s most remote and inhospita-
ble deserts, from Alice Springs to the
Indian Ocean, in 1977. The idea of a
long camel trek across the desert was
triggered by her desire to challenge her
contrasting personal traits of vulnera-
bility and steely determination. A
chance meeting with photographer Rick
Smolan led to National Geographic
sponsorship. Davidson relied on good
maps and knowledge of the constella-
tions to navigate. A Pitjantjatjara man,
Eddie, shared her journey from Docker
River to Warburton (WA) to guide her
to water (AG 2). Tracks, Davidson’s
best-selling book about her Australian
journey, was made into an internationally
released fi lm in 2013.Trekking
the wilds:
Inland, deserts
and junglesLUDWIG LEICHHARDT (1813–1848)
Friedrich Wilhelm ‘Ludwig’ Leichhardt
was an accomplished scientist and
explorer. He completed one of the
longest inland expeditions and opened
up much of the country to pastoral-
ism. He also left us with a fantastic
unsolved mystery when he and his
party of five white men, two
Aboriginal guides, seven horses, 20
mules and 50 bullocks disappeared in
1848, never to be seen again (AG 98).JACKEY JACKEY (?–1854)
Showing grit, resourcefulness
and incredible devotion to his
employer Edmund Kennedy, this
heroic Aboriginal man is not usually
remembered by his own name,
Galmarra, but by the name given to
him by the European colonisers –
Jackey Jackey. He joined Kennedy’s
ill-fated 1848 expedition to map
the far north Queensland coast
and travel to Cape York Peninsula.JOHN MCDOUALL STUART
(1815 –1866)
The first known explorer to have
successfully crossed the continent from
south to north and back again, John
McDouall Stuart is appropriately
memorialised in the name of the main
highway from Port Augusta to Darwin.
The crossing didn’t come easily though- he had several failed attempts before
finally completing the journey in 1862,
nearly blind and very sick. He died less
than four years later.
WILLIAM SHERIDAN WALL
(1815 –1876)
There are explorers who thrive in
extreme conditions, who persevere,
uncomplaining, no matter what is
thrown at them. William Sheridan
Wall wasn’t one of them. His journals
reveal a reluctant and petulant
traveller, yet the specimens he collected
and preserved for the Australian
Museum – such as a Diprotodon fossil in
1847 – contributed much to the early
study of Australian plants and animals.60 Australian GeographicLEAVING FROM
Alice Springs, Robyn
Davidson walked
2700km with camels to
the WA coast in 1977.DAVIDSON: ASSOCIATED PRESS; MORRISON: STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES; FRANKLIN: TASMANIAN ARCHIVE AND HERITAGE OFFICE; FLETCHER: COURTESY AM