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Explorers

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Voss

Set in nine­teenth cen­tu­ry Aus­tralia Voss is the sto­ry of the secret pas­sion between an explor­er and a naive young woman. Although they have met only a few times Voss and Lau­ra are joined by over­whelm­ing obses­sive feel­ings for each oth­er. Voss sets out to cross the continent.

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The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins: Australia’s Greatest Explorer

The extra­or­di­nary, must-read sto­ry of the brave, bold Hubert Wilkins — Aus­trali­a’s most adven­tur­ous explor­er, nat­u­ral­ist, pho­tog­ra­ph­er, war hero, avi­a­tor, spy and dare­dev­il — brought to life by Aus­trali­a’s great­est sto­ry­teller. Sir Hubert Wilkins is one of the most remark­able Aus­tralians who ever lived. The son of pio­neer pas­toral­ists in South Aus­tralia, Hubert stud­ied engi­neer­ing before mov­ing on to pho­tog­ra­phy, then sail­ing for Eng­land and a job pro­duc­ing films with the Gau­mont Film Co. Brave and bold, he became a polar expe­di­tion­er, a bril­liant war pho­tog­ra­ph­er, a spy in the Sovi­et Union, a pio­neer­ing avi­a­tor-nav­i­ga­tor, a death-defy­ing sub­mariner — all while being an explor­er and chron­i­cler of the plan­et and its life forms that would do Vas­co da Gama and Sir David Atten­bor­ough proud. As a WW1 pho­tog­ra­ph­er he was twice award­ed the Mil­i­tary Cross for brav­ery under fire, the only Aus­tralian pho­tog­ra­ph­er in any war to be dec­o­rat­ed. He went on expe­di­tion with Sir Ernest Shack­le­ton, led a ground­break­ing nat­ur­al his­to­ry study in Aus­tralia and was knight­ed in 1928 for his avi­a­tion exploits, but many more astound­ing achieve­ments would fol­low. Wilkins’ quest for knowl­edge and polar explo­rations were life­long pas­sions and his mis­sions to polar regions aboard the sub­ma­rine Nau­tilus the stuff of leg­end. With mas­ter­ful sto­ry­telling skill, Peter FitzSi­mons illu­mi­nates the life of Hubert Wilkins and his incred­i­ble achieve­ments. Thrills and spills, der­ring-do, new worlds dis­cov­ered — this is the most unfor­get­table tale of the most extra­or­di­nary life lived by any Australian.

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Shackleton

An author­i­ta­tive biog­ra­phy of Sir Ernest Shack­le­ton from polar adven­tur­er Ran­ulph Fiennes. In 1915, Sir Ernest Shack­le­ton’s attempt to tra­verse the Antarc­tic was cut short when his ship, Endurance, became trapped in ice. The dis­as­ter left Shack­le­ton and his men alone at the frozen South Pole, fight­ing for their lives. Their sur­vival and escape is the most famous adven­ture in his­to­ry. Shack­le­ton is an engag­ing new account of the adven­tur­er, his life and his incred­i­ble lead­er­ship under the most extreme of cir­cum­stances. Writ­ten by polar adven­tur­er Sir Ran­ulph Fiennes who fol­lowed in Shack­le­ton’s foot­steps, he brings his own unique insights to bear on these infa­mous expe­di­tions. Shack­le­ton is both re-appraisal and a vale­dic­tion, sep­a­rat­ing the man from the myth he has become.

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