Cinematographer Michael Dillon had only just begun his outdoor filming career in the 1970s when he decided to write to Sir Edmund Hillary after hearing the New Zealand mountaineer and adventurer was planning a journey up the Ganges in India.
Despite only having made three films, Dillon was employed to film the three-month expedition, which involved driving three jet boats from the mouth of the transboundary river to into the snows of the Himalayas where the river rises, and a subsequent mountain climb.
It proved memorable not only because of how it ended – Hillary was evacuated from the mountain by an Indian Air Force helicopter after a battle with altitude sickness – but for what happened after, according to the decorated lenser.
“Even Edmund Hillary said that was his best expedition and it’s certainly the one I most remember because it also led to other things,” Dillon said.
“Once I had done that, I got chosen to film the first Australian Everest expedition in 1984.”
Dillon’s work as an all-terrain filmmaker will be recognised in Melbourne this week as he accepts the Australian Geographic Society’s Lifetime of Adventure Award, considered the society’s highest honour.
It comes a year after the 40th anniversary of the first Australian ascent of Everest, which he filmed as a member of a crew that included Greg Mortimer, Tim Macartney-Snape, and Lincoln Hall, among others.
The project would inspire Macartney-Snape’s 1990 Sea to Summit expedition, with Dillon capturing the action as a producer and director as the mountaineer again journeyed to the Himalayan summit, this time from sea level.
His other career achievements include two Everest ballooning expeditions and seven documentaries with Hillary, with whom he remained friends for more than two decades, as well as a base jumping expedition in the Karakoram, six Antarctic Expeditions, two English Channel swims, expeditions in Siberia, Irian Jaya, and Africa, and a journey by London Taxi from Buckingham Palace to the Sydney Opera House.
Accolades have come in the form of Australian to earn the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award in 1963, the inaugural Australian Geographic Silver Medallion for Excellence in 1986, a 2001 Emmy nomination for his cinematography work on Survivor, successive ACS Golden Tripod Awards in 1985 and 1986, and becoming a member of the Order Of Australia in 2004. In 2022, he became the first person from the Southern Hemisphere to be awarded the International Alliance for Mountain Film’s Grand Prize.
Speaking about his latest award, Dillon commended the Australian Geographic Society for acknowledging cinematography.
“Mostly they give it to people that are well-known adventurers,” he said.
“I think this is the first time it’s been given to someone who films adventures. I’ve been on quite a few of these significant Australian adventures over the past 40 years but I’m not the star or the hero . . . I’m behind the scenes.”
As part of this week’s ceremony, there will be a screening of Dillon’s newest film The Great White Whale, which draws on 60-year-old footage from the first adventurers to climb Australia’s highest peak Big Ben on Heard Island, an Australian external territory situated about 4,000 km south west of mainland Australia.
One of the adventurers, Warwick Deacock, is a lifelong friend of Dillon’s, having allowed him to take his place shooting an Everest trek for the ABC in the 1960s after bowing out due to sickness.
Dillon filmed interviews with Deacock and the other Big Ben mountaineers 12 years ago, before putting together the footage during COVID.
He said advancements in the equipment used to film expeditions had made for a different mix of mental and physical energy in the time since the original footage was taken.
“Of course, the equipment has become a lot lighter these days, and sound is now integrated with the camera, plus batteries last a lot longer,” he said.
“The only downside is there are so many different ways you can film, whether it be with drones or go pros, so at any one time you have to decide as to what you are actually going to use to film.”
The Australian Geographic Awards Roadshow with Michael Dillon will be held February 6 at held at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville, Melbourne. Find more information about upcoming screenings of The Great White Whale here.