Ernest Giles

Background

Ernest Giles was born in Bristol, England, on July 20, 1835 to William Giles, a merchant, and Jane Elizabeth, née Powell. In 1850 he followed his parents, younger brother, and five sisters who had migrated to South Australia in 1848.

Education

Giles was educated at Christ's Hospital school, Newgate, London.

Career

An adventurous young man, he was unable to settle for long in one place and after trying his hand on the Victorian goldfields and working in Melbourne as a post office clerk, he eventually found employment as a stockman on the Darling River in New South Wales. The constant need to find additional pasture took him on several expeditions, aroused his interest in exploration, and developed his knowledge of bushcraft. The late 1860s was a period in which growing interest was being shown in the region between central and western Australia. Although the coastal route around the Great Australian Bight had been traversed, no one had yet crossed the inland wilderness. On August 4, 1872, Giles set out from the Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, but the harshness of terrain and climate, combined with the uncooperativeness of one of his colleagues, forced him to abandon the attempt in late October. A second expedition organized a year later ended in failure and the death of his companion, Alfred Gibson, whom he commemorated in naming the Gibson Desert. To make matters worse, a party led by Peter Warburton succeeded in crossing the desert, winning a race that Giles had hoped to win. Giles was determined to persevere even though yet another explorer, John Forrest, also preceded him. In 1875 Giles organized a third expedition, this time starting farther south and using camels instead of the horses that had not stood up to dry conditions. Leaving from Beltana on May 6, 1875, he arrived at Perth, after a harrowing journey, on November 10, 1875. Not content with this achievement, he determined to become the first to cross both ways. The more northerly route he selected was one that would take him through the Gibson Desert, which had previously defeated him. On January 13, 1876, he left Perth and headed northeast before striking inland. On this occasion he crossed the desert and accomplished his goal by reaching the telegraph line on August 23, 1876. This was the peak of Giles's life. He carried out no further major explorations, though in 1882 he did carry out some investigations near the Musgrave Ranges. In the 1890s he found employment at Coolgardie on the Western Australian goldfields as a clerk in the mines office. Wealth eluded him, and he died a man of no material substance on November 13, 1897.

Achievements

• He led five major expeditions in central Australia. In 1976 he was honoured on a postage stamp bearing his portrait issued by Australia Post.
  
  Mount Giles, the third highest mountain in the Northern Territory; Lake Giles, 160 km (100 mi) north of Southern Cross, Western Australia; and the Giles Weather Station, near the Western Australian-South Australian border, were named after him.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Geographic Travels in Central Australia (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Geographic Travels in Central Australia The...)

  • Australia Twice Traversed: Volume 1: The Romance of Exploration (Cambridge Library Collection - History of Oceania)

    (Ernest Powell Giles (1835-97) is best remembered as one o...)

  • Australia Twice Traversed: Volume 2: The Romance of Exploration (Cambridge Library Collection - History of Oceania)

    (Ernest Powell Giles (1835-97) is best remembered as one o...)

  • Australia Twice Traversed

    (Australia Twice Traversed By Ernest Giles)

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• H. H. Finlayson in The Red Centre: man and beast in the heart of Australia (1935) said of Giles:
  
  "All who have worked in that country since Giles's time have felt both admiration and astonishment at the splendid horsecraft, the endurance, and the unwavering determination with which these explorations were carried through . .. To read Giles's simple account of those terrible rides into the unknown on dying horses with an unrelieved diet of dried horse for weeks at a time, with the waters behind dried out and those ahead still to find, is to marvel at the character and strength of the motive which could hold a man constant in such a course. "

Connections

He was unmarried.

Father:

William Giles

Mother:

Jane Elizabeth, née Powell

References

• Ernest Giles (Australian explorers)
• Ernest Giles: Explorer and traveller, 1835-1897