Oskar Speck and friends at Killcare Heights
Subject or historical figure
Oskar Speck
(1907 - 1993)
Date1950 - 1965
Object numberANMS1249[057]
NamePhotograph
MediumSilver gelatin print
DimensionsOverall: 65 x 92 mm
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from John Ferguson
DescriptionBlack-and-white photograph of Oskar Speck, Nancy Jean Steel, an unidentified child and man standing outside Speck's house at Killcare Heights.
Oskar purchased eight acres of land at Killcare Heights and hand built the cottage and an opal-cutting workshop himself.HistoryOskar Speck (1905 - 1995) was a German adventurer who, in the 1930s, paddled his kayak SUNNSCHIEN (SUNSHINE) from Europe to Australia. He departed from Ulm in Germany on 18 June 1932, paddling down the Danube at the start of a 50,000km voyage to Australia. His voyage of seven years and four months saw him stopping at ports in Germany, Austria, Hungary, former Yugoslavia, former Macedonia, Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran Jaya, Papua New Guinea and Australia (Saibai Island). He arrived on Saibai Island near Papua New Guinea in the Northern Torres Strait on 20 September 1939. Speck arrived with a swastika on the bow of his 5.3 metre German built Folbot kayak a few days after Australia declared war with Germany.
Speck was travelling on a German passport and was promptly arrested as an enemy alien on his arrival on Thursday Island. He would spend the next six years in internment camps in Australia, including Tatura in Victoria where he managed to escape.
SignificanceThe remarkable story of Oskar Speck is one of extraordinary endurance. He undertook an epic seven-year, 50,000 km voyage from Germany to Australia in the 1930s in a five-and-half metre collapsible kayak SUNNSCHIEN. It is also a story of the hostilities of WWII and of those who made Australia their new home.