Skip to main content
Advanced Search
View of a row of stilted houses along a wooden walkway
View of a row of stilted houses along a wooden walkway

View of a row of stilted houses along a wooden walkway

Photographer (1907 - 1993)
Date1934 - 1939
Object numberANMS0545[089]
NameNegative
MediumCellulose (nitrate or acetate) negative, black and white
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Nancy Jean Steele Bequest
DescriptionBlack and white image by Oskar Speck depicting a row of stilted houses adjoining a wooden walkway. HistoryWhen German electrical contractor Oskar Speck's business closed during the economic turmoil of the early 1930s, he decided to paddle down the Danube River in his five-and-half metre collapsible kayak SUNNSCHIEN (SUNSHINE) and head to Cyprus to find work. On 18 June 1932, aged 25, Speck departed from Ulm, Germany and eventually made his way through Austria, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and eventually to the Mediterranean. Upon reaching Cyprus, Speck decided rather than find work, he would continue his adventure describing his kayak as a "first class ticket to everywhere". Speck headed for Syria and from there across to Iran and Pakistan. By 1935, three years after leaving Germany, he had reached India and Sri Lanka. Speck paddled onward to Burma, Thailand and Malaysia, and arrived in Indonesia in 1937. There he acquired a 16mm cine-camera which allowed him to film the remainder of his voyage. Speck then progressed on to Dutch New Guinea. He arrived on Saibai Island (in the Northern Torres Strait) with a swastika pennant flying from the bow of his 5.3 metre German built Folbot kayak only a few days after Australia declared war with Germany. As Speck was travelling on a German passport, he was promptly arrested as an enemy alien on his arrival on Thursday Island (in the Western Islands of the Torres Strait off Cape York Peninsula). Speck was detained at the Tatura internment camp in Victoria, and after escaping and being recaptured he was sent to the Loveday Internment camps in South Australia for the duration of the war. Speck remained in Australia on his release and travelled to Lightning Ridge to learn the opal cutting trade. He later settled on the central coast of New South Wales where he designed and built a house and workshop at Killcare.SignificanceThis image is part of the visual record of the remarkable story of Oskar Speck, who undertook an epic seven-year, 50,000 km voyage from Germany to Australia in his five-and-half metre collapsible kayak SUNNSCHIEN (SUNSHINE).