Red deserts & leafy walks

Monday 18 June 2012

Red deserts & leafy walks

Presented by Valmai Hankel

The Burnside area has been associated with several of our inland explorers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some well-known, others obscure. Five of the explorers to be discussed were members of John McDouall Stuart’s expedition of 1861-62, when he successfully crossed the continent from south to north and back. The controversial Peter Egerton Warburton is best known for leading the first European expedition from Alice Springs in Central Australia to the Western Australian coast in 1873. Last but not least is the polymath Charles Chewings, most of whose explorations were in Central Australia.

Valmai has been interested in our inland explorers since she was eight. It was to be another 36 years before she was able to travel in some of the country they had experienced. Since then she has driven, mostly on her own, in various parts of outback Australia. She has written the introductions to many of the explorers’ journals republished by the Friends of the State Library of South Australia, such as Eyre, Stuart, Giles, Landsborough, and the lesser known Davidson and Chewings.

Record of Meeting

View the record of all past meetings which details all talks given at meetings by guest speakers since our foundation in 1980. Most meetings since 1985 have been recorded.

No.*BTddocDateTopic, Speaker, Detail
35018/6/2012

Red deserts & leafy walks

Presented by Valmai Hankel

The Burnside area has been associated with several of our inland explorers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some…

Legend

B: Burnside topic

T: tape

d: disc

doc: pdf document

*: on location

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