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leader. The next day they sought Gibson but to no avail and Giles named the desert after him. Giles had to admit
defeat; so on 21 May they departed from Fort McKellar and on 13 July reached Charlotte Waters.
Although forestalled by P E Warburton and John Forrest, Giles finally achieved his ambition to make an east
west crossing of the continent in 1875. Supplied with camels by Thomas Elder, he departed from Beltana via
Port Augusta, whence he proceeded northwest and then west along a string of waterholes, Wynbring, Ooldea,
Ooldabinna and Boundary Dam to the Western Australian border. His party then tackled the 500-kilometre journey
across the Great Victoria Desert, and were lucky to get through. Only fortuitous discovery of the Queen Victoria
Springs saved them. From there Giles was able to complete the journey to Perth in comparatively easy stages.
The triumphant entry into that city must have been some compensation for his years of effort.
Not content with the single crossing, he, with Ross and Nicholls, Saleh and Tommy Oldham, went north to
the Rawlinson and Ashburton Rivers in 1876, and finally crossed Gibson’s desert that had defeated him two years
earlier.
Although Giles found little good country his journeys added greatly to knowledge of Central Australia.
He published Geographic Travels in Central Australia from 1872–1874, (1975), The Journal of a Forgotten
Expedition (1880), and Australia Twice Traversed (1889). For his explorations he was made a Knight of the
Crown of Italy, Honorary Member of several continental societies, and in 1880 Fellow and Gold Medallist of the
Royal Geographical Society, London. The South Australian government granted him 250 Pounds for each of the
expeditions in 1872 and 1874, and the lease of some 5000 square kilometres of grazing country at the foot of the
George Gill Range. However, he was unable to take up the lease, as he had no money to stock the lease and pay
the rent.
Giles took the job of land classifier in the western district of Victoria in 1877–1879. He paid a brief visit to the
Musgrave Ranges in 1882, represented a prospecting company he had formed in the Kimberleys in 1890 and soon
afterward joined his nephew Gordon Gill in the gold rush to Coolgardie. There he obtained the position of clerk in
the Warden’s Office and died of pneumonia on 13 November 1897.
He had made no major discoveries, but Giles is among the more interesting of Australian explorers because
of his journals, which display a rare descriptive ability. His culture and imagination were as great as his courage,
endurance, vision and determination.
R Erickson, West of Centre, 1972; R Erickson, Ernest Giles, 1978; Australia Twice Traversed, 1889; SAAP, 21, 1872 and 215, 1873–1874.
J R FLEMING, Vol 1.
GILES, HAROLD STANAGE (1890–1960), bookkeeper, policeman, soldier and pastoralist, was born on
7 March 1890, at Springvale Station, Northern Territory, the third of four children of Alfred Giles and Mary Augusta,
nee Sprigg. His elder brothers were Felix Gordon Giles (1885–1950) (later to attain the rank of Lieutenant Colonel
and win the Distinguished Service Order (DSO)), Leslie Henry Alfred Giles (1888–1949) and his younger sister
Maud Lorenzo Frances Giles, later Lady Cockburn-Campbell (1893–1926). Alfred Giles had been second in
charge of John Ross’ exploration party formed in 1870 to establish a suitable route from Adelaide to Darwin.
Harold Giles’ mother, Mary, was the daughter of Henry L Sprigg, Naracoorte, South Australia, the manager of
a sheep station ‘San Lorenzo’ owned by Philip Levi. Mary’s eldest brother, Charley W Sprigg was a surveyor. With
A T Woods and Alfred Giles’ brother Christopher Giles, he accompanied the Goyder Survey Expedition of 1869.
Alfred Giles married Mary Augusta Sprigg at the bride’s home in South Australia in 1880. The newly married
Mrs Giles and her maid Lydia travelled to Springvale Station (built 1879 on the Katherine River) which was
managed by Alfred Giles for Dr W J Browne, a South Australian pastoralist, livestock speculator, philanthropist
and public figure.
Harold and his brothers and sister were all born at Springvale Station. It was not a financial success and
was unsuccessfully offered for sale in 1887. Giles and his family remained in occupation until 1894 and finally
moved to a homestead at Bonrook, four miles from Pine Creek. Harold Giles recalled that a Chinese nurse boy
named Ay Yook cared for the Giles children. Harold was a big baby and nicknamed Mt Kosciusko or Kiko for
many years. Mrs Giles taught her children at home until a government school opened at Pine Creek with a South
Australian teacher, Miss Bell. The children rode ponies four miles to the school. The Giles home at Springvale
and later Bonrook had the Ronisch piano brought by Mary Augusta and also complete sets of the works of Scott,
Dickens, Kingsley and Longfellow; the family knew these works well.
In 1900 Felix went to boarding school in Adelaide. By the time Leslie and Harold went to St Peter’s College
they were skilled horsemen, familiar with firearms and good bush men. Harold Giles was a meticulous writer
and described the health problems, including malaria, of the area where he had grown up. His mother cared for
the sick people at Springvale and later Bonrook. He describes that Dr Collins at Brocks Creek (48 miles from
Bonrook) was paid 1 Shilling and 6 Pence per week to attend but with only a weekly train from Brocks Creek to
Pine Creek the medical attention was not good. Mrs Giles used quinine for malaria, a remedy recommended by
Dr W J Browne many years before.
In 1907 Harold Giles returned from boarding school and obtained his first position as a bookkeeper at
Wave Hill. When 21 years of age (March 1911) he came to Darwin and was sworn in by the Government Resident,
Justice S J Mitchell, as a member of the Northern Territory Mounted Police Force. His first assignment was to
travel as Police Officer with a scientific party led by Professors J A Gilruth and Baldwin Spencer to go down
the Roper River. Alfred Giles supplied the horses and buggies for this trip. Harold Giles remained at Borroloola
as police constable. One duty from that station was to travel to Wollogorang on Settlement Creek, 352 kilometres
from Borroloola near the Queensland border, and apprehend a murderer called ‘murdering Tommy’. Giles had