Retired Officers' Association of Papua New Guinea Inc. Brett Hilder: A Research Tribute collection of aggregated records

fonds

1957-2000

9661054

0.20 metres of textual material (1 box and 1 microfilm reel)

Captain Brett Hilder was born in Epping, Sydney in 1911, son of watercolourist J J Hilder. In 1928 he joined Burns Philp Ltd as a deck cadet, which took him to the Pacific Islands and Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies. Ten years later he had become a ship's master. Captain Hilder was called up by the Navy in World War II, but quickly transferred to the RAAF where he flew Catalina flyingboats. After the war he returned to his former profession and captained passenger and cargo liners that traded between Sydney and the Solomon Islands, including the MV Malaita. During this period, Hilder started painting and drawing, producing many watercolour landscapes and portraits of the people and places he visited in both the Pacific and South East Asia. These were exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne, Port Moresby, Honiara and New York. He also wrote extensively on navigation, ports, islands and other topics, such as forestry and architecture, publishing in magazines such as Walkabout
Hilder wrote the book Navigator in the South Seas, published in 1961. In 1964 he became Senior Captain of Company with Burns Philp. Captain Hilder founded the Australian Institute of Navigation. Captain Hilder died in 1981, leaving a unique artistic legacy which is closely associated with the heyday of the Burns Philp era in the South Pacific

COLLECTION 1:
Retired Officers' Association of Papua New Guinea Inc. - Brett Hilder: A Research Tribute, 2000

COLLECTION 2:
Retired Officers' Association of Papua New Guinea (Australia) - Research tribute to Captain Brett Hilder, 1957-2000

PMB (Australian National University. Pacific Manuscripts Bureau) ; 1180
Available for reference
Microfilm. Canberra, A.C.T. : Produced for the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, Australian National University. 1 microfilm reel
Original paintings and drawings held by Pictorial Section, National Library of Australia
Descriptive list available (4 p.)