Name: Home via Hermannsburg. William Wilkinson’s 847 day Top End Red Centre quest
Start: 2026-05-21T19:30:00+09:30
End: 2026-05-21T21:30:00+09:30
Location: Immanuel Lutheran Church, North Adelaide, South Australia

$Home via Hermannsburg. William Wilkinson\u2019s 847 day Top End Red Centre quest$

Monthly Friends of Lutheran Archives public meeting.
Also available via YouTube LiveStream: https://www.youtube.com/@friendsoflutheranarchives9644/live
Speakers: Mark J. Smith
$6 donation at the door. No bookings required.
12 000 km on horseback through the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Tanami Desert and Namatjira's home of Hermannsburg during Carl Strehlow's tenure, as WW1 was breaking out in 1914.
Fever. Malaria. Malnutrition. Exhaustion. Crocodiles. Horses lost and killed by snakes. Abandoned by his Indigenous guides. Clash of cultures. Opium. Murder. Theft. A public execution.

Why did Wilkinson, a deaf priest of Far West Queensland, endure all of this?
Percy Smith MBE founded the Anglican Church in Alice Springs and wrote the 1947 book "The Strenuous Saint" describing this epic trek. Percy’s grandson Mark will reflect on Wilkinson, “who looked for no praise, sought no reward, received no recognition.”