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25.01.2022 The Sir Hubert Wilkins (named such 2000 - 2008) built in 1960 in Brisbane.

25.01.2022 100 years ago, on the 7th of October 1920, Wilkins departed on a 75 day transit, on his first trip to Antarctica. He left Sydney by boat to Auckland, from where he took a train to Wellington. There he boarded a ship bound for San Francisco, stopping at Rarotonga and Tahiti, then travelled by train to New Orleans. In the port of New Orleans he boarded another ship, steamed through the Panama Canal, with various stops to Valparaiso. In Valparaiso he again took a train to Bueno...s Aires and finally a ferry across to Montevideo. All this to catch his ship to the Falklands from where he joined his short-lived Antarctic adventure with John Lachlan Cope. On December 20th, Cope set out on his drastically reduced 'British Imperial Antarctic Expedition' with a tiny party of only four men and no ship, having hitched a ride on a Norwegian whaling ship. Wilkins and Cope himself left after just 6 weeks, leaving Bagshawe and Lester who stayed on diligently recording scientific data in the hopes that they would get paid. It appears they had plenty of penguins to keep them company.

23.01.2022 Mail from Deception Island, Antarctica to New York, with Trans-Arctic Expedition rubber stamps

22.01.2022 Wilkins's Fokker F.VIIA named "Alaskan," taking off from Fairbanks for Pt. Barrow with supplies circa 1926.

22.01.2022 Turns out my wife is on Facebook too! https://www.facebook.com/suzanne.bennett.50746

21.01.2022 Our latest newsletter Hello Hello #7 is out and it's packed with updates!

20.01.2022 More photos taken by HG Wilkins on his first short-lived foray in Antarctica, along with Maxime Lester, Thomas Whyatt Bagshawe and their leader John Lachlan Cope. Their curious onlookers would have provided much entertainment.

20.01.2022 I had a tremendous sensation of power and freedom, Wilkins wrote of his record breaking first flight over Antarctica... For the first time in history, new land was being discovered from the air.

17.01.2022 In 1928, Wilkins reached Deception Island with an expedition team which included two Lockheed Vega airplanes. Wilkins and his crew then built a runway onshore of Whalers Bay, from where he launched the first motorized flight into Antarctica on December 20, 1928. Today the Wilkins Airstrip is no longer intact but the site remains a point of interest to well-informed visitors. Deception Island is in the South Shetland Islands, at the end of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is the caldera of an active volcano, however it provides a natural safe harbour in an otherwise very hostile environment.

15.01.2022 Aurora Expeditions ship the Greg Mortimer, which features an educational Wilkins display on their own Hubert Wilkins Deck aboard the ship.

14.01.2022 On this day in 1929 at the registry office in Cleveland, Ohio, Wilkins married Australian actress Suzanne Bennett, hailing from Walhalla VIC. They had met the year before in NYC at a reception in honour of Wilkins's historic flight over the the arctic, and were married for 29 years. Despite living largely independent from each other, both pursuing active careers and interests; they both had their ashes scattered at the North Pole at the end of their lives.

14.01.2022 Have you ever heard of Hubert Wilkins? At 8:20 a.m. on December 20, 1928, this Australian polar explorer and pilot took to the air from Deception Island in the ...South Shetland Islands. He flew over the Antarctic Peninsula, completing the first ever flight in Antarctica. According to fellow Antarctic explorer Griffith Taylor, "20th December 1928 was the most wonderful day, for in ten hours Sir Hubert Wilkins settled more problems and sketched more new coastlines than any other expedition had accomplished in West Antarctica". What an incredible achievement! Hubert Wilkins may be the most under-rated Australian explorer of all time. photo credit: @onlymytravelshots See more

13.01.2022 On this day in 1917... Wilkins photographed by the legendary Frank Hurley in Belgium, 103 years ago today. Lieutenant George Hubert Wilkins, at the time an Australian official photographer alongside Hurley, looks out through the window of the shell damaged village church at Vlamertinge, near Ypres, upon the graves of Australian soldiers who lost their lives on the battle grounds of the Salient. Held in the Australian War Memorial collection.

10.01.2022 Wilkins, top left, with the scientific staff and crew leaders of Stefansson's fateful Canadian Arctic Expedition, before they set off on what was to be a formative first polar expedition for him. When Wilkins turned up in his bowler hat and spats, the tough and experienced Newfie Captain Bartlett greeted him with wry sarcasm. I can't help but wonder what role the brave Australian would have played in the ice-bound voyage of the Karluk had he not been selected by Stefansson ...to go ashore? He would likely have gained Bartlett's trust and respect, being a man of similar humility and mettle... Image 2: Bartlett, lower middle next to Stefansson on the right.

07.01.2022 Extensive display on the Hubert Wilkins deck aboard the Greg Mortimer. Thanks so much @new_age_travellers for the photos! @aurora_expeditions @ Aurora Expeditions

05.01.2022 For Men Of Distinction... Wilkins as a poster boy for high-end whiskey, in 1946 while working for the U.S. Navy's Office of Scientific Research. Picture by iconic photographer of the era Valentino Sarra.

02.01.2022 La Niña is digging her heals in... I wonder, what would Wilkins be up to of he was researching and adventuring these days?