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Ernest Powell Giles (1835–97) is best remembered as one of the first explorers of South Australia. Powell emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1850, settling in Adelaide. From 1861 he was leading small-scale expeditions along the Darling River, searching for land suitable for cultivation. Following the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin in 1872, Powell embarked on five expeditions attempting to discover an overland route between Adelaide and Perth. These volumes, first published in 1889, provide a detailed and dramatic account of his discoveries. Based on Powell's personal journals, these volumes describe in vivid detail the hardships and dangers of exploration in Australia in the nineteenth century, while providing an evocative description of the South Australian landscape before colonisation. Volume 1 contains Powell's account of his first two unsuccessful expeditions of 1872 and 1873, including his discovery of the Gibson Desert and Lake Amadeus.
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