Discovery is an ever-growing understanding of the world and is constantly being uncovered by individual people. Through history, many individuals have been made famous through their discovery. It is through their discovery that the character and concerns of these individuals are sculpted and created. The transformative qualities of discovery allow readers and viewers of texts to relate to this universal topic. The texts Frank Hurley: The Man Who Made History by director Simon Nasht and Australia Day by Ursula Dubosarsky provide evidence of this transformation of the individual that influence the concept of discovery.
The human dimension shown in the Simon Nasht’s film about Frank Hurley depicts the innate curiosity of human nature that defines who we are. It is through the need to now more and explore that discoveries are made. The film cleverly portrays Frank Hurley’s curiosity for capturing the Antarctic as seen in the initial viewing sequence as Hurley ventures out to capture the first exploration of the Antarctic with Sir Douglas Mawson. The film states that Hurley was “bowled over by the potential of photography” when he went to take images. This draws upon Hurley’s origins as a self-made and self-educated man who took on initiative to pursue photography out of curiosity. This idea of curiosity heavily influences Hurley’s ability to discover new things through his photography, and also almost one hundred years on, allowing modern historians to understand Hurley’s discoveries through his photography. The relationship between Hurley and the discoveries about Antarctica that he made have enabled the influence of discovery over the past century. The language in the opening sequence provokes the