Review written by:  Norma Vaughan

Comics, giant crabs and Cosmo Buff Gordon.  What could possibly be the connection?    Jim Barns opened his "Great Adventures" presentation with mention of the comic book adventurers we knew as youngsters.  He followed that with a photo of a giant crab whose body from claw to claw was almost as wide as the man who was holding it.  He proposed that Mandurah Crabfest could be made more adventurous if  a dozen or so of them were let loose in the estuary to act as prizes for a fishy game of hide and seek. Cosmo Duff Gordon was a man who survived the sinking of the Titanic, then afterwards remarked,  "It was rather a serious evening, you know".

We were treated to hearing more of the finest understatements in British history in a reading by Jim's wife June (pictured).  The audience responded warmly  to the flashes of humour, and also to a reading of a surprising elephant story.  That led us to Rudyard Kipling's great adventure story  "Kim",  which Jim illustrated with a film clip of Kim and his Lama's adventures on the Grand Trunk Road.  Next came a description of one of last century's greatest adventures, the space race in the 1950's followed by the first landing on the moon in 1969.  For additional interest, Jim showed an amazing piece of French film that was made in 1902, and which predicted the landing on the moon, so many years later.

Jim then took us to Antarctica as he described the perilous adventures of the great Antarctic explorers, beginning with the exploits and achievements of the Anglo/Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton.  We heard about the famous race to the South Pole between the successful Norwegian Roald Amundsen,  and the ill-fated Robert Falcon Scott, who, with his comrades,  perished on their return journey.  Finally, we saw actual footage of the terrifying conditions suffered by the Australian scientist Douglas Mawson and his party, together with a recreation of his epic journey of survival, including his lone recovery from falling into a crevasse.  His solitary 100-mile final trek is recognised as one of the most courageous feats of all time.   

This year marks the 100^th Anniversary of that journey, the consequences of which contributed enormously to geological science, and to the securing of almost half of Antarctica for Australia.   Jim recommended Peter Fitzsimonds's recently published book "Mawson".

Back to Photo Stories