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NLA News - home August 2003 Volume XIII Number 11
Hiking with Hurley
A black & white photograph of the Barron Pass [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947 by Frank Hurley

 

 

 

 

 

Frank Hurley (1885–1962)
Barron Pass [Frenchman
Range, Tasmania] 1947
plastic negative;
11.7 x 16.2 cm
Pictures Collection
nla.pic-an23504633

Simon Kleinig describes a bushwalk to Frenchmans Cap in Tasmania and the resulting suite of photographs in the Frank Hurley Collection

The Pictures Collection of the National Library of Australia includes a series of little-known photographs taken by Frank Hurley during a journey to western Tasmania. Frenchmans Cap (1447 metres) is one of Tasmania’s most distinctive peaks: an elegant, white quartzite dome, ice-sheared on its south-east face to reveal some of the highest cliffs in Australia, and almost completely encircled by the Franklin River in a wild region of dense rainforests, sparkling lakes and towering rock spires. Today the mountain is an increasingly popular destination for bushwalkers, rockclimbers and photographers, and is enclosed within the World Heritage-listed Wild Rivers National Park.

When he arrived in Tasmania a few years after the Second World War, Hurley was already a celebrated photographer and a household name. As an official war photographer in two World Wars, a member of five separate Antarctic expeditions—including epic journeys with both Mawson and Shackleton—and a traveller to the Torres Strait Islands and a primitive New Guinea, Hurley had a life that reads like a Boy’s Own adventure.

In recent times, Hurley has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity through exhibitions of his photographs, newly produced documentaries and a film featuring his role as a member of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition. There is even another biography due for release in mid-2004. It is appropriate, therefore, to re-visit Hurley’s long-forgotten journey to Frenchmans Cap over Easter, 1947.

No doubt the mountain was suggested to him as a good photographic destination and an opportunity to indulge in a little adventure, and Hurley would have found both these challenges irresistible. He was 62 at the time, but he continued to challenge himself throughout his life, right up to the time of his death.

A party of 10 Hobart walkers agreed to accompany Hurley and assist him with their bush experience. In addition to carrying their own packs and food, they shared the burden of his 36 kilograms of photographic equipment.

With introductions complete and gear sorted, heavy packs were thrown onto shoulders and the journey began.

A black & white photograph of the Frenchmans Cap Summit [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947 by Frank Hurley
A black & white photograph of the Lake Tahune, Vert [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947

above: Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962
Frenchmans Cap Summit [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947
plastic negative; 11.7 x 16.2 cm
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an23504639

right:: Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962
Lake Tahune, Vert [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947
plastic negative; 16.2  x 11.7 cm
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an23504635

Some of the walkers were somewhat nonplussed to observe that Hurley was only wearing ‘brogue-style’ street shoes, when their own feet were clad in stout walking boots. However, their worst fears were allayed when Hurley promptly pulled on a pair of rubberised-canvas overboots, that extended up to about calf height. They were a Second World War acquisition—courtesy of the United States Navy—and though rather unorthodox, served Hurley well for the duration of the trip, through deep mud, rainforests and up steep mountain passes.

The party crossed smaller streams over fallen logs, before resting on the banks of the Loddon River for lunch. By late afternoon, light rain was falling as the party looked down upon the broad, rippled waters of Lake Vera. A campsite was selected, tea-tree brush was gathered for bedding, and a satisfying meal was cooked before everyone turned in for an early night, in anticipation of the climb to the high country the next morning.

They awoke rather late to a mist-shrouded Lake Vera. As the sun rose higher into a cloudless sky, the mist lifted and Hurley took this opportunity to set up several shots of the lake. At 11.30 am they reached the top end of the lake and began the long climb up through rainforest to Barron Pass. Hurley was particularly taken with the magnificence of this forest—one of Tasmania’s finest—and with the delicate beauty of the climbing epacris, in particular.

In the early afternoon, the party emerged at the top of Barron Pass. A member of Hurley’s party, Peter Croft, later recalled: ‘Time was no object to Hurley. If the sun wasn’t in the right place, then we waited for it to get into the right place.’ Over three hours passed before they pulled on their packs once more, and it was nearly dark when they arrived at the new, split-pine hut at Lake Tahune. The clear, evening sky now came alive to a dazzling display of stars, and a rising full moon illuminated the white quartzite rock of the Cap to dramatic effect.

Easter Sunday brought perfect weather conditions. At the southern end of Lake Tahune, Hurley set up his camera equipment, and, looking through the fringe of rainforest to a dramatic backdrop of craggy peaks, he took one of his finest photographs of the trip. Hurley’s classic photograph of Lake Tahune remains a centrepiece of the Library’s collection from this series and has been reproduced many times over the years. Framed by leafy pandanni and majestic King William pine, it captures the pristine beauty of this magnificent lake perfectly. Hurley, despite his global fame as a professional photographer, never forgot the basics of his craft, learnt in his formative years: ‘If you know what you’re doing,’ he explained to Peter Croft, ‘all you need is a shoe box and a darning needle. You can take a perfect photograph by taking your thumb away from the hole and then putting it back again.’

A black & white photograph of the Pinnacle Wall Valley [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947 by Frank Hurley
A black & white photograph of the Lake Vera Early Morning [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947 by Frank Hurley

above: Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962
Lake Vera Early Morning [Frenchman Range, Tasmania]1947
plastic negative; 11.7 x 16.2 cm
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an23504654  

left: Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962
Pinnacle Wall Valley [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947
plastic negative; 16.2 x 11.7 cm
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an23504655  

With lengthening afternoon shadows, a rush was made for the summit of Frenchmans Cap. The hikers scrambled to the summit cairn just in time to witness a brilliant sunset, which Hurley duly photographed on colour film—a rare commodity at that time. As the sun finally sank behind the mountains, the party made its way down in failing light, stumbling and sliding over rocks, mud and pineapple grass, until, emerging suddenly from behind the trees, they were greeted by the welcome sight of the little pine-clad hut.

After tea in the rustic surroundings of Tahune Hut, they all relaxed in the glow of the fire as Hurley recounted his past adventures. A natural raconteur, he held the party spellbound with recollections of his days in the Antarctic. In 1914 Shackleton had planned to cross Antarctica on foot but the transport ship, Endurance, was trapped and slowly crushed in the pack ice, leaving the crew stranded. Shackleton then triumphed over disaster to lead his men to safety—an event in which Hurley played an important role by recording much of the ordeal on film. Hurley’s magnesium flare-lit photograph of the ghostly Endurance, ‘ a spectre ship set in a world of rime crystals,’ remains one of the most dramatic photographic images of all time, and his jealously-guarded movie film of the expedition, In the Grip of the Polar Pack, was largely responsible for defraying the costs of Shackleton’s ill-fated expedition. Despite a long day of activity, Hurley’s stories kept the young party mesmerised until 4.00 am.

The hikers’ return journey to the Lyell Highway, punctuated with photographic stops, was uneventful and their arrival coincided with that of the bus for Hobart. Hurley continued on the remainder of his photographic journey around Tasmania before returning to the mainland. In due course, a large packet of 10 by 8 inch enlargements of scenes from the Frenchmans Cap journey was posted from Sydney and distributed to each member of the party.

 ‘I made one unpardonable slip,’ Hurley wrote in a letter to party member Nancy Wilson, ‘by exposing two fine shots of the Frenchman from Lake Tahune on the one plate. It is a mystery to me how it happened as I am always very careful checking up. That was the only miss and is not serious as I have ‘oodles’ of good shots. In fact, I am faced with an embarrassment of riches, scarcely knowing which gem is the best. I think the shots around Baron’s Pass [sic] are the most spectacular.’

A black & white photograph of the Sentinal Rock [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947 by Frank Hurley
Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962
Sentinal Rock [Frenchman Range, Tasmania] 1947
plastic negative; 11.7 x 16.2 cm.
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an23504646

Although Hurley was pleased with the overall photographic results of the trip, he felt he had not done justice to the peak itself. ‘This is my own and time’s fault,’ he confessed. ‘I made so many delays along the route—always fearful of bad weather—that it was too late when we finally reached the summit to make any exposures. Of course I didn’t know what to expect when we got there. There are many wonderful shots to be taken from “The Col” onwards—I must make a visit again.’

The next trip never eventuated. Hurley’s travelling itinerary on endless photographic odysseys across Australia meant that he needed at least another lifetime to cram in all the things he wanted to do.

Several Frenchmans Cap photographs later appeared in Hurley’s famous Australian viewbooks, with some published as composite images—a practice Hurley frequently used to create dramatic effect. During the First World War this practice placed him at odds with the authorities, who argued that it rendered his work unauthentic, though Hurley insisted that it was an entirely legitimate tool, enabling him to more fully capture the drama of his images. However his Frenchmans Cap photographs are dramatic enough on their own and certainly didn’t need further embellishment.

Frank Hurley was the first photographer to undertake a serious study of the Frenchmans Cap region, and his photographs capture the essence of the forest, mountain and lake scenery for which the area is famous. His collection of 24 Frenchmans Cap photographs can now be viewed on the Library’s website at: www.nla.gov.au/catalogue/pictures/

SIMON KLEINIG has been researching Frenchmans Cap for several years and is preparing a book on the history of the mountain

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