Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am thrilled to be able to speak in this place about a rare being indeed: a modern-day Arctic explorer, Tom Smitheringale, who calls Fremantle home. On 26 February 2010, Tom embarked on a solo unsupported trek to the North Pole, a feat only achieved by two people in the history of polar exploration. Setting out from McClintock Inlet at the top of Canada, Tom battled blizzards, bears and broken ice as he attempted to cover 800 kilometres in less than two months. This time Tom, an experienced extreme adventure racer and veteran of the British Army, fell short of his mission. After struggling for several days with frostbite on his extremities, he fell through the ice, suffered severe hypothermia and was rescued by the Canadian military.

Tom is now home in Fremantle recuperating and planning his next adventure. Tom said to me, during a meeting at a favourite Fremantle cafe last week, ‘Getting there was always optional; getting back was mandatory.’ Certainly Tom has long dreamed of adventuring, but the recent effort also aimed to raise funds for the Burnet Institute, an Australian organisation which focuses on curing and preventing the spread of some of the world’s worst infectious diseases. Only a month since his return, Tom is busy planning his next mission, while also visiting schoolchildren throughout Fremantle to share his experience. He says: ‘Unlike adults, they never ask why.’ Most important to Tom is instilling in his young admirers a buoyant self-belief and passion for the myriad possibilities in life. As Helen Keller said in Let Us Have Faith: ‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.’

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