This is the last book I finished and it was immensely interesting. I had never heard of Hubert Wilkins before I picked up this book, yet I now wonder why we don’t all know his name as well as we do Charles Kingsford Smith and Damien Parer or Charles Bean. As he did as much as each of these fellows put together.
Sir Hubert Wilkin's was born in 1888, the last born (lucky thirteenth child) of the very first (white) child, to be born in the fledgling colony of South Australia. Hubert’s father chose land which was on the interior edge of the drought circle, which meant that it was not capable of sustaining life during extended dry periods.
Seeing the struggle of his family and terrible condition of the stock, encouraged him to wonder about the nature of weather, the methods of prediction and how these methods may be improved. He wanted to enable farmers to be forewarned of major climatic events well into the future so they could husband the resources accordingly. His efforts have resulted in the weather prediction services the world has today.
He was totally self educated bar a few years with sporadic mentoring by a local minister. Hubert laid his hand to whatever he thought would be of use to him in attaining his goal…. Permanent weather stations on every continent, including the poles, which shared information freely for the betterment of all.
This led to a great many adventures and near death experiences and with him being a expert in many fledgling sciences including taxonomy, meterology, photography, electronics, aviation, submarines and the development of ligthweight but effective survival equipment for polar regions.
It was exhausting to read but he certainly thrived on the variety of his experiences and knowledge, having led his last Antartic expedition at the age of 69.
Well worth reading!
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