Wilkinson at a camp in the Northern Territory, 1911, Mark J. Smith

Home via Hermannsburg: William Wilkinson’s 847 Day Top End Red Centre Quest

12,000 km on horseback through the Gulf of Carpentaria, Tanami Desert and Namatjira’s home of Hermannsburg. Fever. Crocodiles. Horses lost and killed by snakes. Abandoned by his guides. Opium. Murder. Theft. A public execution. Clash of cultures. As WWI broke out in 1914, why did a deaf priest of Far West Queensland endure all of this?

Presented by Friends of Lutheran Archives & Mark J. Smith