Undiscovered Australia 1923-1925
Two First Nations women
On the back of his work for the Quakers and on Shackleton’s Quest, Wilkins was appointed by the British Museum to document fauna and flora rapidly disappearing from the Australian outback due to poor land management practices.
One of the original maps used by Wilkins – in themselves a piece of art
Specimens being identified and tagged by the discovering team late at night.
It was a two year expedition and, despite the commitment of British taxpayer dollars to the mission, no one was ever sure what exactly the brief to Wilkins was. For sure, he took it as an opportunity to rack up more adventures as he travelled from around Townsville in Queensland to the Northern Territory’s Groote Eylandt, mixing it up with local aboriginals and the missionaries, even making it to the races in Katherine.
An Aboriginal elder
Two members of the expedition inspecting fossils discovered.
However, the venture, recorded in images and items maintained by the British Natural History Museum and the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Centre and in the book he wrote of the venture, Undiscovered Australia, proved to be a controversial one. His put down of the farmers did not endear him generally in his homeland, his depiction of the first nation peoples would not be considered flattering today and still people question what his qualifications for the mission were.
More Images
Images from the British Natural History Museum and the Byrd Polar & Climate Research Centre.