An autobiography of the late Colin Putt, 368 pages, soft-bound, coloured photographs and maps.
Colin Putt, BEng, BSc, CEng, FIChemE, FRGS, lived an extraordinarily diverse, interesting and adventurous life. He was born in 1926 in Auckland, New Zealand, into a family whose forebears were farmers, boatbuilders and engineers. The pioneering spirit and traditions that he inherited were to shape his life and values. His boyhood provided numerous opportunities for exploration and self- discovery, which led to a lifelong love of adventure in the mountains and on small boats.
They also helped form a man who was highly intelligent, loyal, hardy, practical, resourceful and possessed of a
wonderful sense of humour. All these qualities can be found in the pages of this book. Colin was a senior and highly respected engineer with ICI in Sydney, the UK and in South Australia, where his work saw him deal with complex and sometimes very hazardous problems on a daily basis.
He was a fine leader and a consummate problem solver. He remained involved in chemical engineering until the end of his life, and in his 80s was a loved and admired tutor to honours and graduate students at Sydney University, passing on the lessons of a lifetime and enabling students to appreciate in a very personal way the practical implications of their studies.
Expeditions to remote parts of the world became a significant part of his life, and in the outdoors he was known to his many friends as “Puttoh”. In 1962, he was asked by Sir Edmund Hillary to lead an expedition to attempt the first ascent of the Carstensz Pyramide in Dutch New Guinea. In 1964 he sailed with the legendary H.W. Tilman to sub-Antarctic Heard Island and was in the party that made the first ascent of Big Ben, Australia’s highest mountain. In 1970 he sailed again with Tilman to Greenland and in the following years went to Antarctica on several mountaineering and scientific expeditions, travelling to and from the continent in small sailing ships.
Colin’s deep knowledge of history and his engineering skills were both tested in his final expedition. This involved building a replica East African trading canoe based on a design described by the Roman historian, Pliny, and sailing it from Indonesia to Madagascar. In his retirement, he also helped design, build and test a replica of a 7th century Mongolian wind wagon. Colin’s achievements on expeditions were acknowledged in many ways, but perhaps most notably by the esteem in which he was held by those who climbed and voyaged with him. This is evident in
the evocative Foreword written by Iain Dillon, his friend and fellow-expeditioner.
After the Heard Island expedition, Colin was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and in 1986 he was
named “Australian Adventurer of the Year”. In 2013 he was awarded a “Lifetime of Adventure Award” by the Australian Geographic Society. Colin had completed about two thirds of his autobiography at the time of his death in 2016, aged 89.
After the Heard Island expedition, Colin was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and in 1986 he was
named “Australian Adventurer of the Year”. In 2013 he was awarded a “Lifetime of Adventure Award” by the Australian Geographic Society. Colin had completed about two thirds of his autobiography at the time of his death in 2016, aged 89. Jill Kenny edited the final version of the book.
ANZEC Member - Colin Putt (1926-2016)
Trained as a chemical engineer, Colin had a reputation as a man who could fix anything. His journeys have coloured the pages of Australian Geographic since the journal’s first issue, when we featured his 1984 ‘Project Blizzard’ voyage to Antarctica aboard Dick Smith Explorer.
On that expedition, Colin was one of a team of 12 that spent three weeks aboard the 21m-long schooner en route to Boat Harbour, where they worked to conserve Mawson’s Hut.
Four years later, the icy continent called to him again. This time he travelled as part of the team that made the first ascent of 4163m Mt Minto (AG 12), in Antarctica’s Admiralty Mountains.
Describing the Mawson mission to Australian Geographic in 2011, Colin detailed a hair-raising adventure that had “started out on the wrong foot” when they ran into engine trouble almost as soon as they left Sydney Heads.
However, ever resourceful, Colin worked furiously to repair the vessel quickly so the ship wouldn’t be later trapped in Antarctic sea ice. The ship was then caught in a five-day storm and capsized twice with nearly disastrous consequences. The boat righted itself within minutes each time, but the damage Colin had to repair was considerable. As a result of his skills on this mission, in 1987 the AG Society made Colin Adventurer of the Year. Colin was also awarded the 2013 AG Society Lifetime of Adventure medallion.
Colin’s life of adventure had begun many years prior to his Antarctic escapades. His first was an attempted climb of Carstenz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya), in what is now Indonesia’s West Papua province, in 1960. Although his team was unsuccessful on that occasion, Colin saw this attempt as the perfect reconnaissance trip for future missions.
Among many other expeditions, Colin was a member of the first team to climb Big Ben on Heard Island in the early 1960s and his achievements have inspired others to embark on similar expeditions.
Colin retired to Dangar Island, in the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, with his wife Jane. There, he relished his life on the waterfront, surrounded by boats and his children and grandchildren. He will be missed by many, including the many students he taught over the years and the young adventurers he continued to mentor until the end.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Colin Putt Memorial Film by Michael Dillon
