“Photography was interesting and the prospects and salary tempting. As a news photographer I would see a great deal of the world and learn a great deal.”
George Hubert Wilkins was born on the family farm at Mount Bryan East, South Australia in 1888. (Today the Wilkins homestead, Netfield, has been preserved and is open to visitors.) During his youth he demonstrated a love of books and learning. Constant droughts and hardship made life difficult for his ageing parents and, in 1905, the family moved to Adelaide, where young Wilkins commenced an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer.
In 1908, an Adelaide businessman, W. H. Bruce, staged a carnival on North Terrace and Wilkins operated the generator that supplied the show with electricity. After a strict Protestant upbringing, he was immediately attracted to a life of travel and show business. He learned to play the piano and sing in Bruce’s Carnival.
In 1909 he moved to Sydney where he continued to work as an electrical engineer, while managing theatres in the growing film industry. He bought his first motion picture camera and commenced making newsreels and feature films. In 1912, he wanted to see the world and sailed to England to work as a cinematographer for the Gaumont picture company. Six months after landing in England, Wilkins was sent to film a war that had broken out in the Balkans. He recorded the war from the Turkish side and his fellow correspondents noted his courage and ingenuity. He often rode forward with the first wave of soldiers and insisted on getting film and photographs of the actual fighting.
Wilkins returned to London with a reputation as a fearless and resourceful cinematographer, willing to endure hardships to record his images. Still working for Gaumont, he joined the Canadian Arctic Expedition, which was intending to explore the unknown areas north of Canada. Wilkins, who expected to be away for one year, wrote excitedly to his parents, explaining how the polar expedition would help his reputation as a cinematographer.
Shortly after entering the Arctic Ocean, the expedition ship sank. Wilkins and other members of the expedition were stranded on the ice. Wilkins thrived in the difficult conditions and understood the advantages of learning from the Inuit. He learned the importance of travelling light and adapting to the local environment. For the next three years, while other expedition members struggled to return south, Wilkins explored the Arctic, often living with the Inuit. His letters and writings from this period reveal that he had found his life’s calling.
He was drawn the remoteness of the region and began to question the values of the ‘civilized world.’ He would argue people could better seek to understand their spirituality in areas where there was little evidence of human intervention. He would later write, “Only in the polar regions can one feel truly close to The Creator.”
On reaching a Canadian village in 1916, Wilkins learned ‘civilized countries’ were at war in Europe. Millions of people were fighting and dying. He immediately determined to enlist and fight for Australia.