Francis Birtles
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n adventurer, photographer, cyclist, and filmmaker, who set many long-distance cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
and driving
Driving
Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a land vehicle, such as a car, truck or bus.Although direct operation of a bicycle and a mounted animal are commonly referred to as riding, such operators are legally considered drivers and are required to obey the rules of the road...
records, including becoming in 1927 the first man to drive a car from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Australia. Birtles had set a speed record driving from Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
to Melbourne the previous year.
Life and career
Birtles was the third child of David Edwin Birtles, a bootmaker, and Sarah Jane Bartlett. At the age of 15, Birtles joined the merchant navyMerchant Navy
The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
as an apprentice, but after the outbreak of the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, he jumped ship at Cape Town, South Africa in 1899, in an attempt to enlist with Australian militia. However, he was attached to the Field Intelligence Department as part of a troop of irregular mounted infantry until May 1902. After a brief period back in Australia, Birtles joined the constabulary in the a mounted police officer in the Transvaal, until his police service ended when he contracted blackwater fever
Blackwater fever
Blackwater fever is a complication of malaria in which red blood cells burst in the bloodstream , releasing hemoglobin directly into the blood vessels and into the urine, frequently leading to kidney failure...
.
On his return to Australia toward the end of 1905, Birtles cycled round Australia twice and by 1912 had crossed the country seven times. He was the first person to cross Australia from west to east on a bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
and in 1912 he became the first person to make a west to east crossing from Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
to Sydney in a Brush Runabout
Brush Motor Car Company
This article is about a USA auto-maker. For the British rail-locomotive company, see Brush TractionBrush Motor Company, or the "Brush Runabout Company," based in Detroit, Michigan, was founded by Alanson Partridge Brush , who designed a light car with a wooden chassis This article is about a USA...
.
On 21 September 1912 Birtles with his brother Clive and bulldog 'Wowser' left Melbourne in a blue 20hp Flanders touring car
Flanders (automobile company)
.The Flanders Automobile Company was a short-lived US-American automobile manufacturer which operated in Detroit, Michigan, from 1910 to 1913....
to drive to Sydney, Brisbane, Charters Towers and then to the Gulf of Carpentaria
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
. From the Gulf he drove close to the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
border and he arrived back in Melbourne in January 1913.
On Saturday, 13 February 1915 Birtles left Sydney for a six month long motoring tour following Burke and Wills' track. Birtles took a movie camera and made a cinematographic record of the journey. Birtles reached Broken Hill on 25 February and Adelaide on 1 March, where he spent two weeks recovering from an illness, before driving to Burra
Burra, South Australia
Burra is a pastoral centre and historic tourist town in the mid-north of South Australia. It lies east of the Clare Valley in the Bald Hills range, part of the northern Mount Lofty Ranges, and on Burra Creek. The town began as a single company mining township that, by 1851, was a set of townships ...
, Port Augusta, Quorn
Quorn
Quorn is the leading brand of mycoprotein food product in the UK and Ireland. The mycoprotein used to produce Quorn is extracted from a fungus, Fusarium venenatum, which is grown in large vats....
, and Maree to Cooper Creek
Cooper Creek
Cooper Creek is one of the most famous and yet least visited rivers in Australia. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its tributaries and is one of three major Queensland river systems that flow into the Lake Eyre Basin...
. Birtles reached Normanton
Normanton
Normanton is the name of several places:In England:*Normanton, Derbyshire*Normanton, Leicestershire*Normanton, Lincolnshire*Normanton, Nottinghamshire*Normanton, Rutland*Normanton, West Yorkshire**Normanton...
on Saturday, 5 June 1915, and then drove to Melbourne via Cape York
Cape York
Cape York may refer to:* Cape York , a cape at the north-west coast of Greenland, in northern Baffin Bay* Cape York meteorite, meteorite found in 1894 near Cape York, Greenland...
, Einasleigh, Hughenden
Hughenden
Hughenden may refer to:*Hughenden, Queensland, a town in Australia*Hughenden, Alberta, a village in central Alberta, Canada*Hughenden Valley, a village in Buckinghamshire, England*Hughenden Manor, a mansion in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England...
, Tambo, Roma
Roma, Queensland
Roma is a town in the western Darling Downs area of Queensland, Australia, by rail WNW of Brisbane. It is situated at the junction of the Warrego and Carnarvon highways...
, Toowoomba, and Brisbane, arriving in Melbourne at the end of September 1915 having covered 7,000 miles in seven months. He then drove from Melbourne to Swan Hill and Menindee to finish the movie of the Burke and Wills' track. The film was called 'Across Australia: In the Tracks of Burke and Wills' and was released by The Co-Operative Film Exchange Ltd of Melbourne, and opened in Melbourne at Hoyt's Olympia Theatre on Christmas Day 1915.
As a publicity stunt, Birtles was commissioned by Barlow Motors, the Melbourne agent for the Bean cars
Bean cars
Bean Cars were made in factories in Dudley, Worcestershire, and Coseley, Staffordshire, England, between 1919 and 1929.-Origins:The company traced its origins beck to two auto-industry component suppliers, A Harper and Sons and Bean Ltd., both based in England's Black Country...
, to drive a modified Bean 14 car from Darwin to Melbourne. With his co-driver Alec Barlow, they left Darwin at 4am on 23 October 1926 and completed the 5440 km (3,380.3 mi) journey in eight days and 13 hours, a record. The car was dubbed the Sundowner by Birtles.
Following this success, Birtles was asked to make an attempt at becoming the first person to drive from England to Australia. He departed from Australia House
Australia House
The High Commission of Australia in London is housed in Australia House, a building that also accommodates other Australian federal and state government agencies, including the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, part of King's College London....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 19 October 1927, farewelled by a crowd of wellwishers including the 1927 Miss Australia
Miss Australia
Miss Australia is the title for the winner of the Miss Australia Quest/Awards, which ran from 1954 until 2000, when the last Miss Australia was named....
. In an era when there were few roads and gasoline supplies sparse, the epic eight month journey carried him across mountains, deserts and through tropical jungles and included a number of sea voyages - the last being from Singapore to Darwin. He travelled via Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Persia (now Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
), India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Burma
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
and Malaya.
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Stanley Bruce
Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC , was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...
averted the situation. He continued south via Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
to the official finishing point of the journey at the General Post Office on Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Elizabeth Street is one of the main north-south streets in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837.- Geography :...
on 25 July 1928. He was promptly asked to move on by a policeman for obstructing traffic.
The journey was not repeated until 1955.
Birtles had completed more than 70 transcontinental crossings of Australia by mid-1927, details of which were described in his book Battlefronts of Outback (1955).
In 1929, the Bean car was presented to the Australian Government on condition that it be placed in the national museum. As there was no such museum at the time, the car disappeared for many years before being recovered in the 1960s and placed into the National Motor Museum in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
in 1980 before moving to the National Historical Collection in the National Museum of Australia
National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia was formally established by the National Museum of Australia Act 1980. The National Museum preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation....
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
in 2001.
In 1933, Birtles travelled to Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land
The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...
with a prospecting and mining expedition in search of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, after having found some several years previously during one of his journeys. He subsequently sold his share in the mining stake and retired a wealthy man.
Birtles also made several films of his encounters with the outback and indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
including Across Australia with Francis Birtles (1912), Into Australia’s Unknown (1914) and Coorab in the Island of Ghosts (1929).
Personal life
Birtles was married twice. Birtles married Frances Knight nn 27 November 1920 at St Paul's Cathedral, MelbourneSt Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne
St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, is the metropolitical and cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. It is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Metropolitan of the Province of Victoria...
, but they soon separated and she divorced him in 1922. Birtles married Nea McCutcheon on 11 February 1935 at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
The Metropolitan Cathedral of St Mary is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney and the seat of the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell. The cathedral is dedicated to "Mary, Help of Christians", Patron of Australia...
, and they were together until he died at the Sydney suburb of Croydon of coronary vascular disease on 1 July 1941. Birtles is buried in the Anglican section of Waverley Cemetery
Waverley Cemetery
The Waverley Cemetery opened in 1877 and is a cemetery located on top of the cliffs at Bronte in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. It is noted for its largely intact Victorian and Edwardian monuments. The cemetery contains the graves of many significant Australians including the poet Henry Lawson and...
.
Books
- 1909. Lonely Lands: Through the Heart of Australia. Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co.
- 1913. 3,500 miles across Australia in a Ford car: From the Gulf of Carpentaria to Port Philip Bay. Edited and compiled by G.W. Whatmore. Adelaide, South Australia: Duncan & Fraser Ltd.
- 1924. Darwin to Adelaide, 9 days, 9 hours, 15 minutes: Francis Birtles' history making journey, 18th-27th Nov. 1924. Melbourne: British Imperial Oil Co. Ltd.
- 1935. Battle Fronts of the Outback. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Films
- 1912. Across Australia with Francis Birtles.
- 1914. Into Australia's Unknown.
- 1915. Across Australia in the Track of Burke and Wills.
- 1919. Through Australian Wilds.
- 1929. Coorab in the Island of Ghosts.