Wilkins, Sir H.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (12:45): I move:

That this council—

1. Congratulates the Wilkins Foundation on its establishment;

2. Recognises the efforts of the Wilkins Foundation to have Sir Hubert Wilkins properly acknowledged and respected as a great South Australian and Australian legend and hero;

3. Acknowledges the extraordinary feats undertaken by Sir Hubert Wilkins across a range of fields including aviation, exploration (including polar expeditions), war photographer, engineer and scientist;

4. Notes that this year will be the 67^th anniversary of his death; and

5. Calls on the South Australian government to honour Sir Hubert Wilkins legacy by seeking and funding the return of his possessions from Arizona in the United States to be housed and displayed at the South Australian Museum.

I rise to speak on my motion that honours probably South Australia's, even Australia's, greatest unheralded and forgotten hero. It is time we rectified that. Sir Hubert Wilkins might well draw a blank among many Australians. Ironically, he was more feted in the United States, where he lived for most of his adult life, after leaving Adelaide in 1909.

Take a stroll along North Terrace next to Government House and you will see a plaque bearing his name, placed there in 2008. I will admit, as a lover of history and Australian history, I knew very little about the extraordinary exploits of Wilkins until I came across an engrossing book by Peter FitzSimons, The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins, published in 2021.

I am about to outline his incredible story, which is so deserving of a legacy here in our city and fabulous South Australian Museum. A plaque on a footpath, a road named after him at the Airport, a portrait that hangs there in the men's bathroom, the Wilkins Highway in the Mid North, his restored birthplace cottage at Netfield in Mount Bryan East, paid for by entrepreneur and philanthropist Dick Smith, a visitor centre named after him in Jamestown, and a bronze bust in the State Library sum up what his home state has done to remember and honour him.

It does no justice at all. If anything, it undervalues his contributions to world history. There have been calls to name Adelaide Airport the Sir Hubert Wilkins Airport in his honour. I could not agree more, and I will write to the management there to consider it. Am I guiding the lily? Far from it. We need to heap a mountain of praise on the man Australia should not forget. Dick Smith describes him as our greatest adventurer and says that South Australia should take Sir Hubert to heart.

Reading what he did in his lifetime simply blew me away. Wilkins was a fascinating, enthralling, exciting, courageous and intrepid adventurer whose life could have been ripped straight out of the pages of a Boy's Own book: World War 1 hero; a spy; a POW who miraculously avoided a firing squad three times; an Antarctic and polar submariner explorer; daredevil, pioneering aviator; wartime filmmaker; and a climate scientist and meteorologist ahead of his time.

He lived a nomadic life, hunting with Ngadjuri Aborigines to learn their culture. He interviewed Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. He rubbed shoulders with royalty, generals, media magnates, explorers, world leaders and shakers of the time—as I mentioned, Lenin, General Sir John Monash, William Randolph Hearst, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen. There is a movie or TV series in this bloke, and there would not be a better actor to play Hubert Wilkins than Chris Hemsworth, our modern version of that other famous swashbuckling Tasmanian action man, Errol Flynn.

The Hon. R.B. Martin: You could star in it.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: They can have an AI version, perhaps.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Well, I generated a laugh on the other side. Anyway, getting back to Sir Hubert Wilkins.

The PRESIDENT: That would be good.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Peter FitzSimons drew a rather odd analogy, because unlike the fictional character Forrest Gump, Wilkins was no simpleton. This is what FitzSimons said:

He really was the Forrest Gump of his era, the man in the middle of so many extraordinary historical moments.

FitzSimons eulogised:

This guy did everything, went everywhere. Sir John Monash called him the bravest man in his command. He had more credentials than anyone else to elevate himself.

Another admirer, Dr Stephen Carthew, describes Wilkins as 'a Renaissance man, polymath and possibilian'. Dr Carthew goes on:

He was a possibilian in that he doesn't ever become a true believer in any one thing, but remains open to everything. He's a true believer. Wilkins was prepared to think about hard things.

In his book, The Last Explorer, author Simon Nasht writes of Wilkins' interactions with the Aboriginal people:

Almost unheard of for a white boy, he would camp out and hunt with his Aboriginal friends and became fascinated by their intimate understanding of the natural world and connection with the spiritual realm beyond.

Hubert Wilkins was born on 31 October 1888 at Mount Bryan, the youngest of 13 children. He studied engineering at Adelaide University. His wanderlust saw him travel to Europe during the Greco-Turkish War of 1912, where he became the first aerial war photographer, hanging from flimsy biplanes to shoot what was thought to be the first moving images of a battle. He was captured by the Turks on suspicion of being a Belgian spy and faced a firing squad not once but three times, avoiding certain execution because they could not extract a confession from him.

When World War I broke out, Wilkins became a war correspondent, where his gallantry shone in horrific theatres of war like Ypres. Shot several times, he often carried the wounded to safety between enemy lines. This bravery earned him a military medal. He was there when the Red Baron, German fighter pilot ace Manfred von Richthofen, was killed in a dogfight over Australian lines in France on 18 April 1918.

He took a plane across the top of the world in 1928 when they said it could not be done. He was knighted later that year for his services to aviation and exploration. There is an enthralling short Pathe interview with him as he prepared to go under the polar ice cap at the North Pole in a submarine, the Nautilus. It was not entirely successful, but proved that submarines could travel under ice.

The UK Secret Service Bureau, later MI6, enlisted Wilkins to travel to Russia to film life under the Bolsheviks and interview their revolutionary leader, Vladimir Lenin. He was shocked at the poverty and despair of what he saw, including learning of a gang of cannibals plotting the murder of people they could eat. Even he was targeted by ravenous peasants, but escaped after they took his bags of flour and meat. He met Lenin, who told him that while he had no regrets about the revolution he did admit it was a mistake to think rapid development was possible within the Soviet Union. In 1921, he took part in Sir Ernest Shackleton's exploration of the Antarctic.

Wilkins was married to Australian actress Suzanne Bennett, and they lived in the United States. They did not have children. He died on his farm in Pennsylvania in 1958, leaving behind a historic treasure trove of artefacts, photographs, journals and other memorabilia collected on his adventures. His ashes were taken to the North Pole by a US nuclear submarine and scattered there, such was the reverence and respect for him in the United States.

The collection is now stored in boxes in an Arizona garage owned by Darren Shofner, but there are fears it is deteriorating and in danger of being thrown away or sold off to collectors around the world. Mr Shofner is offering to sell the collection for about $150,000. Historian Jeff Maynard has viewed some of the contents and is now seeking a generous benefactor in Australia to bring them home to South Australia. Mr Maynard said the History Trust of South Australia, the South Australian Museum and the State Library were excited about the prospect of the collection returning to Adelaide but fears bureaucratic red tape stands in the way.

I would like to thank Eric Ford, who lives in Hawthorndene in the Waite electorate, for bringing this matter to my attention. He says he has contacted the Premier—whose office then passed it on to the arts minister—urging the government to buy the collection but is yet to receive a response. He wrote:

Surely it behoves the Premier of our State to eulogise a great South Australian and perhaps institute steps to have a fitting memorial to Sir Hubert?

I could not agree more. I am asking the South Australian government to buy the collection for the South Australian Museum or the History Trust before this priceless slice of history, belonging to one of our greatest sons, is lost forever. It is such a small price to pay for something so important as South Australia approaches its bicentenary in 2036. I commend the motion.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

Sitting suspended from 12:56 to 14:16.