Sir Hubert Wilkins: The Unsung Hero of Antarctic Exploration

Born in outback Australia in 1888, Wilkins studied engineering at the Adelaide School of Mines before travelling to England as a stowaway and becoming an aerial cinematographer.

He became one of the first people to film a battle, during the Balkan War of 1912–13, and his prowess with the camera earned him an invite to join the Canadian Arctic Expedition in 1913. During this expedition, he and Expedition Leader Vilhjalmar Stefansson became separated from their vessel, and narrowly escaped with their lives after hiking hundreds of kilometres across the sea ice.

Wilkins ventured to Antarctica for the first time in 1920 with the British Graham Land Expedition and, the following year, joined the Shackleton-Rowett Quest Expedition as an ornithologist.

His aerial feats soared to new heights in 1928 when, with Pilot Carl Ben Eielson, he executed the longest flight in a polar region, a trans-Arctic flight from Alaska to Spitsbergen.

The subsequent Wilkins–Hearst Antarctic Expedition in the same year saw him achieve the first Antarctic flight and discover 1000 miles of unexplored territory. Over the next decade, Wilkins revisited Antarctica multiple times, contributing to exploration and scientific understanding.