Trailblazers: Australia’s 50 Greatest Explorers

Stories of pioneers who pushed beyond boundaries to change the way we see the world.

Updated

08/01/24

Trailblazers Exhibition 2016 Stock

Trailblazers Exhibition 2016 Stock

Trailblazers 2015

Trailblazers 2015

Trailblazers Exhibition 2016 Stock

A past exhibition celebrating early trailblazers such as Captain Cook, Burke and Wills, Emily Creaghe and Bennelong; modern pioneers such as Mawson and Kingsford Smith; and contemporary record-breakers like Dick Smith, Tim Jarvis, Andy Thomas and Jessica Watson. Featuring over 360 objects, Australia’s most incredible journeys brought to life. Whether they crossed oceans, tackled jungles, traversed mountains, braved the poles or went to space, our nation’s greatest explorers helped forge the intrepid Australian spirit.

Read their stories

Dick Smith - Hot Air Balloon.

Richard 'Dick' Smith AC

The first person to fly a helicopter solo around the world.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Douglas Mawson in the Antarctic

Sir Douglas Mawson OBE

One of Australia’s greatest Antarctic explorers.

Trailblazer exhibition
Antarctic explorer

M0016205 Portrait of Sir Joseph Banks by Reynolds, S.W.

Joseph Banks

Just how did naturalist and explorer Sir Joseph Banks come to be known as the Father of Australia?

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Matthew Flinders Portrait

Matthew Flinders

An outstanding sailor, surveyor, navigator and scientist.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Ron and Valerie Taylor

Ron and Valerie Taylor

Pioneers of skindiving, underwater photography and cinematography.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Charles Sturt

Driven by the dream of an inland sea.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Friedrich Ludwig Leichhardt

Ludwig Leichhardt

An extraordinary participant in the great Australian Age of Exploration.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Emily Caroline Creaghe

Emily Creaghe

Sometimes referred to as Australia’s first female outback explorer.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Woollarawarre Bennelong

Woollarawarre Bennelong

The first Aboriginal man to visit Europe and return.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Jessica Watson OAM

Jessica Watson OAM

The youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

ANDREW LOCK OAM

Andrew Lock OAM

First Australian to climb all 14 "eight-thousanders".

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Alan Warild

Set multiple records while exploring the world’s deepest caves.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Andy Thomas AO

Australia’s first member of NASA’s elite astronaut corps.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Portrait of Abel Tasman (detail)

Abel Janszoon Tasman

The first European to discover Tasmania and confirm Australia as an island continent.

Trailblazer exhibition

Ron Allum

Legend of the deep.

Trailblazer exhibition

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith

Pioneered routes that include the first trans-Australian, trans-Tasman and trans-Pacific flights.

Trailblazer exhibition
Aviator

GREG MORTIMER OAM

Greg Mortimer OAM

The first Australian to reach the summits of Mount Everest and K2 in the Himalaya, and mounts Vinson and Minto in Antarctica.

Trailblazer explorer

William Bligh

Navigated a tiny vessel a distance of 5800 kilometres, charting part of the north-east coast of Australia along the way.

Trailblazer exhibition
Navigator

WILLIAM 'BILL' BRADFIELD AM

William 'Bill' Bradfield AM

An amateur astronomer who discovered 18 new comets.

Trailblazer explorer

Frank Hurley OBE

Photographed Antarctica, the jungles of New Guinea and European battlefields.

Trailblazer exhibition
Photographic explorer

LINDA BEILHARZ OAM

Linda Beilharz OAM

The first Australian woman to ski both the North and South poles.

Trailblazer exhibition
Polar explorer

The Alexandra Shackleton - Tim Jarvis

Tim Jarvis AM

Re-enacted the Antarctic journeys of Douglas Mawson and Ernest Shackleton.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

JAMES 'CAS' CASTRISSION AND JUSTIN 'JONESY' JONES

James 'Cas' Castrission and Justin 'Jonesy' Jones

The first to walk unsupported to the South Pole and back.

Trailblazer exhibition
Polar explorers

Ryan Campbell

In 2013, became the youngest person to fly solo around the world.

Trailblazer exhibition
Aviator

Arrival of Burke, Wills and King at the deserted camp at Cooper's Creek, Sunday evening, 21 April 1861

Robert O’Hara Burke and William Wills

The first to successfully cross the continent from South to North.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorers

Lady Jane Franklin

Lady Jane Franklin

Adventurer and early agitator for women's rights.

Trailblazer exhibition
Adventurer

V0001221 James Cook.

James Cook

One of the greatest navigators, explorers and cartographers of the Age of Enlightenment.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Tim Cope – one of Australia's 50 greatest explorers featured in Trailblazers

Tim Cope

Covered 10,000 kilometres to become the first person in modern times to follow Genghis Khan’s march from Mongolia to Hungary.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Gaby Kennard OAM in 1989.

Gabrielle ‘Gaby’ Kennard OAM

First Australian woman to circumnavigate the world by airplane.

Trailblazer exhibition
Solo aviator

Bungaree

Born among the heathland, beaches and rainforest pockets of Broken Bay on the New South Wales Central Coast.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Kay Cottee 1989

Kay Cottee AO

First woman to sail solo, unassisted and nonstop around the world.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Jesse Martin OAM

Jesse Martin OAM

In 1999, Jesse became the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop, and unassisted.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

John McDouall Stuart

John McDouall Stuart

The first known European explorer to have successfully crossed the Australian continent from south to north and back again.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Sir Thomas Mitchell

Thomas Mitchell

Major Thomas Mitchell was one of Australia’s most eminent early surveyors and explorers.

Trailblazer exhibition
Surveyor and explorer

William Sheridan Wall

William Sheridan Wall

A reluctant traveller.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Tim Flannery in PNG

Tim Flannery

Explorer, scientist, communicator and former Australian of the Year.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Ernest Morrison

George Ernest ‘Chinese’ Morrison

George Ernest ‘Chinese’ Morrison’s an extraordinary adventurer.

Trailblazer exhibition
Adventurer

Jon Muir OAM

The first Australian to have trekked to both poles and climbed Mount Everest.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Andrew Harper in the Simpson Desert

Andrew Harper OAM

First person to walk west to east across Australia with camels.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Portrait of William Lawson.

Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth, William Lawson

Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth, William Lawson.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorers

Robyn Davidson

Robyn Davidson, the ‘Camel Lady’.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

SIR HUBERT WILKINS

Sir Hubert Wilkins

Polar explore who was on the first flight in Antarctica and first submarine under polar ice cap.

Trailblazer exhibition
Polar explorer

Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki

Paul Edmund de Strzelecki

First European to discover and climb Mt Kosciuszko.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Sydney ‘Syd’ Kirkby

Syd is credited with surveying more of Antarctica using traditional means than anyone in history.

Trailblazer exhibition
Explorer

Nancy Bird Walton AO

Nancy Bird Walton AO

Pioneering aviator who helped set up Royal Flying Doctor Service and trained women pilots during WW2.

Trailblazer exhibition
Aviator

Lawrence Hargrave

Lawrence Hargrave

Engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor, aeronautical pioneer.

Lawrence Hargrave
Explorer

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