author
Ernest Giles
1835–1897
An English-born explorer who helped map some of the hardest and least understood parts of inland Australia, he became known for long, hazardous journeys across central and western deserts. His travels and books helped shape the story of nineteenth-century Australian exploration.
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About the author
Born in Bristol, England, on July 20, 1835, William Ernest Powell Giles moved to South Australia as a teenager and later worked in the Melbourne post office before turning to life in the bush. He is best remembered as Ernest Giles, the name under which he became known as one of Australia's major inland explorers.
In the 1870s, he led a series of demanding expeditions through central and western Australia, traveling across country that was still little known to Europeans at the time. He is especially noted for crossing the desert country between central Australia and Western Australia, and for naming landmarks including Lake Amadeus and Kata Tjuta, which he called Mount Olga.
Giles also wrote about his journeys, including the books Australia Twice Traversed and The Journal of a Forgotten Expedition. He died in Coolgardie, Western Australia, on November 13, 1897, after contracting pneumonia, but his reputation endured as that of a determined and resilient explorer.