Australia Twice Traversed

Ernest Giles's Australia Twice Traversed is a gripping first-person chronicle of five expeditions across the unforgiving interior of South and Western Australia from 1872 to 1876. Part adventure narrative, part geographical record, it follows the struggle to cross deserts, ranges, and waterless country few Europeans had seen, while also noting the rare promise of fertile land hidden within the vast unknown. Giles frames his own journeys within the wider history of exploration, gathering scattered expedition journals into one continuous account and honoring the explorers whose courage, hardship, and discoveries shaped Australia's map. The book ranges from early coastal voyages by Spanish, Dutch, British, and French navigators to the inland breakthroughs of Cook, Flinders, King, Stokes, Sturt, Mitchell, Eyre, Leichhardt, and others. Giles admires their endurance, scientific value, and often tragic fates, while also recounting rivalry, shipwreck, starvation, and hostile encounters. His own narrative then plunges into the brutal realities of desert travel, where heat, thirst, damaged horses, and near-collapse test every mile, creating a vivid portrait of exploration at the edge of survival. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.