Thoughts of northern Australian explorers conjure iconic names like Ludwig Leichhardt.
Nestled among these names is the unlikely story of William Wilkinson.
Known as Australia's 'forgotten explorer', Wilkinson was an Anglican priest, deaf and almost 60 years old when he set out from his home at Laura in north Queensland to visit the Red Centre.
With 16 horses and two Indigenous guides, he would not return for 847 days, trekking through the Gulf of Carpentaria, Katherine, Tennant Creek, the Tanami Desert and reaching as far south as Albert Namatjira's home of Hermannsburg.
Gilbert White, the bishop of Carpentaria, sent out Wilkinson in 1913 - the church wanted to know whether central Australia needed a dedicated priest. Anglicans were new to the area, while Lutheran missionaries had arrived at Finke River in 1877.
Historian Mark Smith, recounted the story of Wilkinson for South Australia's History Month.
"(Wilkinson) was deaf as a post without a brass ear horn and he went off with 16 horses, his gun and his Bible and his camera," he said.
"Over two and a half years, 847 days, he went to the most remote places in the Northern Territory, down to the South Australian border and took amazing photographs along the way."
Wilkinson was on the road in August 1914 as war broke out in Europe. He was part of patriotic events and photographed local Indigenous men saluting the Union Jack.
Decorated in traditional body paint, Smith said the photo was possibly staged to show recognition to a flag under which Indigenous people were considered British Subjects.
In his travels, Wilkinson baptised children, took funerals and marriages - including two unions between white men and Indigenous women.
After a few weeks with the growing Alice Springs community, in 1914 Wilkinson wrote to Bishop White, calling for a permanent priest.
It would be 19 years before Percy Smith arrived in Central Australia to take up the position. Smith's grandfather, Percy (founder of the Anglican Church in Alice Springs) wrote a biography of Wilkinson in 1947 called The Strenuous Saint.
Wilkinson was at Attack Creek in May 1914, about 75km north of Tennant Creek, when he crossed paths with cyclist Edward 'Ted' Reichenbach.
Reichenbach was in the middle of a record-breaking attempt to ride from Adelaide to Darwin, hoping to eclipse a time set by Albert MacDonald 16 years earlier.
Reichenbach's journey of 3168km broke McDonald's record of 28 days, 15 hours and 45 minutes by a mere 15 hours.
At Hermannsburg, Wilkinson spent five days with Lutheran missionaries Carl and Frieda Strehlow. Smith said this would have been at the height of anti-German sentiment with the Strehlows worried for their children who returned to Germany for their schooling in 1910.
Smith said Wilkinson held Holy Communion to mark the completion of his Northern Territory tour on 25 April, 1915 as the Anzacs landed at Gallipoli.
Six horses died on the journey from snake bites and the disease strangles, and Smith said Wilkinson endured fever, malaria, malnutrition and was injured by his own horse.
"Wilkinson learned from Indigenous people," Smith said.
"He relied on their guidance to pilot him and his horses through tough and unknown terrain. He supplemented his diet of salt-beef, damper and tea with bush tucker and traditional food sources."
Wilkinson died in 1935 aged 81.
