Ernest Giles

William Ernest Powell Giles (born July 20, 1835 in Bristol , England , † November 20, 1897 in Coolgardie , Australia ), usually briefly called Ernest Giles , was an Australian explorer who led major expeditions to central Australia.

Life

Born in England , he immigrated to Australia at the age of 15, where he settled in Adelaide and worked in sheep and cattle breeding in the years that followed, while his enthusiasm for the Australian bush grew.

Ernest Giles was the first European who saw the rock formation Kata Tjuṯa in the great sandy desert of Australia , to which he named "The Olgas". The desert adjoining the Great Sand Desert in the south was named Gibson Desert , named after his travel companion Alfred Gibson , who disappeared into this desert. Giles crossed the desert from Port Augusta to Western Australia, then returned by another route to look for traces of the missing person. Several times Giles was close to death, but this crossing was also successful despite all adverse circumstances.

He was a corresponding member of the Thuringian-Saxon Association for Geography. In recognition of his discoveries, Ernest Giles was inducted into the Royal Geographical Society in London. The researcher wrote down his discoveries and travel experiences from 1872 to 1876 as Australia Twice Traversed . Despite his remarkable research, Giles was unable to fund further large expeditions due to a lack of support from the Australian government. After a few less significant research trips, he took up employment in an Australian gold mine.

Giles died, largely forgotten by the public, on November 20, 1897 of pneumonia . His descendants still live in South Australia today.

The third highest mountain in the Northern Territory, Mount Giles, Lake Giles and the Giles Meteorological Station near Warakurna in Western Australia are named after him.

Expedition routes

and display information about the image

Routes of his expeditions

Web links

Biography of Percival Serles Dictionary of Australian Biography (English)

Individual evidence

^ Directory of the members of the Thuringian-Saxon Geography Association on March 31, 1885 ( Memento from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive )

personal data
SURNAME	Giles, Ernest
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Giles, William Ernest Powell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Australian researcher
DATE OF BIRTH	July 20, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bristol , England
DATE OF DEATH	November 20, 1897
Place of death	Coolgardie , Australia

[1] Directory of the members of the Thuringian-Saxon Geography Association on March 31, 1885 ( Memento from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive )