Born July 20, 1835, Bristol, England
Died November 13, 1897, Coolgardie, Western Australia
By the time the Overland Telegraph Line was opened in Australia in 1872, most of the eastern part of the continent had been explored. The line reached from the port town of Darwin, on the north-central shore of Australia, to the city of Port Augusta, on the southeast coast. The vast stretch of land to the west of the Overland Telegraph Line was largely unknown, with settlements occurring only sparsely along the seacoast. It was to these interior western regions that explorers turned, not knowing that there they would face some of the most challenging deserts on Earth.
Ernest Giles was one of the first explorers to journey into the unknown regions west of the Overland Telegraph Line. After several unsuccessful attempts, he would manage, in 1875, to become the first person to make the east-to-west interior crossing of some 2,500 miles: from Port Augusta, across the Great Victoria Desert, and on to the west coast city of Perth. What is more, Giles would make a return west-to-east crossing by way of the even more grueling Gibson Desert. While his achievement went unappreciated by his countrymen during his lifetime—for Giles had found no new land suitable for farming or grazing—he would later be recognized as one of Australia’s most important explorers.
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