Francis Birtles (1881-1941) , born in Melbourne, become a well known adventurer, photographer and film maker. In l907-08 he cycled from Melbourne to Sydney and then via Brisbane , Normanton , Darwin ,Alice Springs and Adelaide back to Sydney, turned into , Lonely Lands, using his own photographs.
An entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography by Terry G. Birtles stated that by 1912 Francis had cycled around Australia twice and crossed the continent seven times .Turning to cars, he performed the first west- east crossing of the nation in a single- cylinder Brush car.
His involvement with the Northern Territory , apart from cycling and record breaking car trips , included carrying out a survey for the proposed north-south railway line to Alice Springs, during which he was injured in a fire near Elsey Station , and gold prospecting.
In 1928 he became the first person to drive from London to Melbourne, over nine months, in a Bean car dubbed The Sunlander , which was donated to a proposed national museum in Canberra.
