Robert Rankin

Robert Rankin is an Australian landscape photographer and filmmaker. Rankin's published photography, filmmaking, and guidebooks raise awareness of the importance of wilderness conservation and promote interest in bushwalking throughout Australia.

Education As a student at the University of Queensland (UQ), Rankin completed a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in physics and a Master of Science (MSc) in environmental physics. Rankin was employed from 1972 to 1976 as a tutor in the UQ Physics Department.

Rankin joined the university's bushwalking club (UQBWC) in 1970, where he developed a knowledge of the mountainous regions of South East Queensland, the Scenic Rim in particular. In early 1972, Rankin flew over and photographed Lake Pedder in Tasmania, a few months before the enlarged lake was flooded for hydro-electric power generation. One of these aerial photographs is included in a collection of photos of the lake taken on this trip. He returned in January 1973 as the original lake was disappearing under the floodwaters of the Serpentine Dam.

After four years as a producer and director of educational television programs, The PhD was awarded in 1986.

Filmmaking In 1975, Rankin received a federal government grant through the Australia Council and the Australian Film Institute to film a documentary about Hinchinbrook Island in North Queensland. With a group of six, he climbed and filmed the ascent, over three days, of the South East Ridge of the Thumb. The film, Climb to the Clouds (1975), was subsequently sold to a Queensland television company. In August 1977, Rankin shot a short film, Ice is Nice, presenting the mid-winter in the extreme environment of Mount Kosciuszko in the Snowy Mountains. The film's historic footage from 1977 was later incorporated into The Snowiest, from the Wilderness Experience Vol 7 DVD.

In Queensland in the 1970s, Rankin was one of several film producers involved in outdoor adventure-oriented 16mm film making. The Mystique of Hinchinbrook again looked at Hinchinbrook Island in more recent times (2007). Jewels of the South West described a 6-day solo trip Australian Wilderness Skills (1983) and On the Edge of Wilderness (1983), the latter showcasing wilderness regions surrounding the city of Brisbane. Classic Wild Walks of Australia (1989), also printed in Brisbane its content released later on CD-ROM, and described by the Sydney Morning Herald as the "best of its kind" in Australia. Also in 1989, William Heinemann Australia chose two of Rankin's images for the front and back covers of a publication on the Snowy Mountains. Wilderness Light (1993), was a discussion of his work.

Rankin has published different titles including books, prints, music CDs, short films, DVDs, and software. Within the first year of publishing, Rankin has sold as many as 30,000 calendars, diaries, and boxed cards. Simon and Matthews cite Rankin's calendars in discussing the way "images of wilderness in everyday use provoke the question of how sentimental attachments toward landscapes might prompt environmental awareness and action". Connell and Gibson, discussing the absence of "realities of Australian “nature”—salinity, old growth logging, bleaching of coral from pollution, soil erosion in marginal landscapes—are not surprisingly absent, replaced instead by an idyllic nature free from human influence", use Rankin's Wilderness CD of 1994 as an example.

Expeditions In 2011, Rankin climbed the Gran Paradiso (4061m) in Italy, and Mont Blanc (4809m) in France in 2012 at the age of 61. He has also hiked in Yosemite National Park in the United States and the Dolomites in Italy.

Personal life Rankin lives in Brisbane with his partner Carmel Keating and their son.

Works

Published books 1983 - Australian Wilderness Skills, Robert Rankin Publishing, Brisbane. (paperback) 1983 - On the Edge of Wilderness, Robert Rankin Publishing, Brisbane. (hardback) 1989, 1990, 1995, 1999 - Classic Wild Walks of Australia, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (hardback) 1992, 2015, 2016 - Secrets of the Scenic Rim, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (paperback) 1993 - Wilderness Light, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (hardback) 2002 - Beyond the Horizon, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (hardback) 2011 - Australia – Wild Places, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (hardback) 2011 - Einstein's Relativity, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (paperback) 2012 - Australia – Mountains, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (hardback) 2013 - Australia – Forest to Sea, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (hardback) 2018 - Tasmania – Wilderness Walks, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (paperback) 2020 - Quantum Reality, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (paperback) 2023 - High Peaks of the Australian Alps, Rankin Publishers, Brisbane. (paperback)

Films Climb to the Clouds (1975) To Walk the Vertical (1976) Walk with Safety (1978) Ice is Nice (1978) Secrets of the Scenic Rim 1991 (1991) Jewels of the South West (2006) Climbing Barney (2006) The Mystique of Hinchinbrook (2007) The Walk to Everest (2010) Federation Peak (2011) In the European Alps (2012) South East Queensland (2017) Secrets of the Scenic Rim (2017) Tasmania - An Alluring Landscape (2019)

ABC educational documentaries

Brisbane's River (1978) Canungra (1980) Ingham (1979) Earth, Wind, Fire and Rain (1979) The Rainforest (1978) The Eucalypt Forest (1980) Forces (1979) Energy (1980) Waves (1981)

DVDs Wilderness Experience (7 Volumes) (2004 – 2012) The Rim - Landscapes of the Scenic Rim (2006) The Mystique of Hinchinbrook (2007) South East Queensland – Wilderness Landscapes (2017)

Music CDs

Visions of Wilderness (1994) Dreams of Wilderness (1994) Images of Australia (1996) Wild Land (2001)

Software

Classic Wild Walks of Australia (Software Version). A comprehensive guide on disk to the wildest regions of Australia. Australian Wilderness Diary and Screen Saver Australian Wild Scenes Screen Saver (Rainforest and Wilderness Collection)