A Voss among the explorers: The career of Ernest Giles

Ernest Giles was one of those people one almost expects to be unlucky. His hopes invited disappointment because of the value he set upon them: he was seeking to fulfil himself in action as an artist might do in his works. He always seemed to be trying too hard, wrestling with physical obstacles with the persistence of am a n struggling to overcome something within himself. Again and again, fate cheated him of his reward just as it appeared to be within his grasp; and when eventually he did succeed in his aim of breaking through from the centre of the Australian continent to its western rim, it was already too late, for other explorers, Forrest and Warburton, had stolen his glory by making the journey before him.