AustLit logo

AustLit

NLA image of person
Frank Hurley Frank Hurley i(A64992 works by) (a.k.a. James Francis Hurley; Captain Frank Hurley; Capt. Frank Hurley)
Born: Established: 1885 Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 16 Jan 1962
Gender: Male
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 y separately published work icon The Diaries of Frank Hurley 1912-1941 Frank Hurley , Robert Dixon (editor), Christopher Lee (editor), London : Anthem Press , 2011 Z1760663 2011 single work diary 'Frank Hurley is best known today as a photographer and film maker. His major documentary films include The Home of the Blizzard, In the Grip of the Polar Pack Ice,Sir Ross Smith's Flight and Pearls and Savages, while his photographs of Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and the two World Wars have been so widely exhibited and reproduced that in many cases they are the principal means by which we have come to see those world-historical events. Yet there is another source, so far little known to the public, which also gives us a startling sense of the presence of the past: it is Hurley's voluminous manuscript diaries, only brief extracts from which have so far been published. Originally written in the field in Antarctica, South Georgia, England, France, the Middle East, Papua and Australia, and later raided and revised for his many publications and stage performances, they have survived years of world travel and are now carefully preserved in the archives of the National Library of Australia in Canberra and the Mitchell Library in Sydney. This illustrated edition of his diaries presents Frank Hurley in his own words, explores his testimony to these significant events, and reviews the part he played in imagining them for an international public' (Publisher website). Contents; Illustrations; Introduction; Acknowledgments and Notes on the Text; 1. Sledging Diary, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (November 1912 – January 1913); 2. The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition Diary (November 1914 – April 1917); 3. The Great War Diary (August 1917 – August 1918); 4. Tour Diary––In the Grip of the Polar Pack-Ice (December 1919 – January 1920); 5. The Torres Strait and Papua Expedition Diaries (December 1920 – August 1921); 6. The Papua Expedition Diary (August 1922 – January 1923); 7. The World War II and Middle East Diaries (September 1940 – April 1941); Index
1 y separately published work icon Antarctic Eyewitness Frank Hurley , Charles F. Laseron , Tim Bowden (editor), Pymble : HarperCollins Australia , 1999 Z1100638 1999 single work prose travel adventure
3 1 y separately published work icon Shackleton's Argonauts : A Saga of the Antarctic Ice-Pack Frank Hurley , Frank Hurley (illustrator), Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1948 Z922312 1948 single work information book children's
1 form y separately published work icon Tall Timbers Timberland Terror (US title) Frank Hurley , Frank Harvey , ( dir. Ken G. Hall ) Australia : Cinesound Productions , 1937 7805030 1937 single work film/TV

'The action takes place at Stroud, a small town right in the heart of Australia's great timber country, where in this usually peaceful stronghold of nature, a bitter fight between two rival companies for a big timber contract rages. Daily men flirt with death in clashes with the towering giants of the forest In the race to deliver first the million feet of timber that will win the coveted contract But it was not a clear, straight fight, and men and women were asking who was responsible for the mysterious explosion that blew up the timber trainbridge. What mysterious hand had cut the hawser that carried the flying fox across the gorge? What of Burbridge's machinery? Who was spreading discontent among his men? The answer came when young Jim Thornton (Frank Leighton) caught an agitator addressing his men, and thrashed him into a confession that he was being paid by the opposition company. Burbridge is not beaten, however. Thornton has an idea–a huge timber drive, never before attempted. Fifty acres of trees on the side of a hill are to be partly cut through, so that when the killers fall on those below, they will in turn fall on those below them.'

Source:

'Parkside Theatre: "Tall Timbers",' Queensland Times, 20 August 1937, p.4.
1 1 form y separately published work icon The Jungle Woman Frank Hurley , ( dir. Frank Hurley ) Australia : Hurley Productions Stoll Picture Productions , 1926 Z1870681 1926 single work film/TV adventure

'Gold that lures men to the utter most recesses of the earth, in the elusive search for happiness and wealth, for wealth means happiness according to the creed of the earth! Captain Hurley's wonderful story of Southern Isles is based on this time honoured theme of the lure of the glittering metal and the dangers risked by those engaged in their relentless search for power. Two young Englishmen are lured to the wild interior of New Guinea, there to be thrown into a breathless struggle.'

Source:

'The Jungle Woman', Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 9 July 1926, p.4 (via Trove Australia).
1 form y separately published work icon The Hound of the Deep Pearl of the South Seas (British title) Frank Hurley , ( dir. Frank Hurley ) Australia : Stoll Picture Productions , 1926 7600194 1926 single work film/TV adventure

'Complying with the strange conditions of his uncle's will, young John Strong finds himself on Thursday Island intent on finding a pearl that can match the world-famous Strong Imperial, a task he must achieve in two years, for the Reuben Strong pearling station and his great wealth will revert to Black Darley the unscrupulous manager. Many adventures are encountered in the quest, and John Strong finds wonderful romance in the South Seas. He sought one pearl and found another, a pearl among girls. The photography is very fine, and there are some most interesting films of the teeming life of the sea many fathoms down.'

Source:

'For West's', The Register, 2 December 1927, p.13 (via Trove Australia).
2 3 y separately published work icon Pearls and Savages : Adventures in the Air, on Land and Sea - in New Guinea Frank Hurley , New York (City) London : G. P. Putnam's Sons , 1924 Z987920 1924 single work prose travel adventure (taught in 1 units)
X