Ellis Matthewman Bankin

Ellis Matthewman Bankin (1903–1936) was an Australian teacher who died while motorcycling near Mount Conner, Northern Territory.

Ellis Bankin was born in Greenvale, Victoria in 1903. he joined the Victorian Department of Education when he was 18. Bankin would teach at schools across Australia, however he was also an ardent motorcyclist, making several trips throughout Australia and overseas. He visited the United States of America, travelling by boat as a sea steward, and spent three years there, and on 9 January 1936 set out from Alice Springs for Uluru, via Mount Conner. He was found four miles from a watering hole which is presumed could have saved his life had he known it was there. A monument to Bankin was erected in Tarcombe, Victoria in August 1936. A scholarship was founded in his honour in September that year.

Bankin also contributed articles to Walkabout magazine where he described his motorcycle trips across Australia. The first, 'Across Australia by Motor Cycle', was published in August 1935, while the second, 'Innamincka – Impressions of a motor-cycle trip to this lonely station in the north-east of South Australia', was published in February 1936. The first was later republished in The School Magazine with a short biography explaining the tragedy of his death.

His life was the subject of Ellis Matthewman Bankin: Outback motorcyclist who perished: a biography (1997) by Richard N. Duckworth. His research on Bankin is held by the State Library Victoria. Additionally Library & Archives NT holds the Richard Duckworth Collection contianing photographs documenting Duckworth's visits to Bankin's grave, and the Ellis Matthewman Bankin Collection 1903–1936 containing extracts from Bankin's diaries.