Cecil Thomas Madigan was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n explorer and geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 born in Renmark

Renmark, South Australia

Renmark is a town in South Australia's rural Riverland area, and is located 254 km northeast of Adelaide, on the banks of the River Murray. The Sturt Highway between Adelaide and Sydney runs through the town; Renmark is the last major town encountered in South Australia when driving this route. It...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

.

After attending Prince Alfred College

Prince Alfred College

Prince Alfred College is an independent, day and boarding school for boys, located on Dequetteville Terrace, Kent Town, near the centre of Adelaide, South Australia...

 in Adelaide and the University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

, he won a Rhodes scholarship

Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...

 in 1911 to study geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 at Magdalen College

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

, Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

.
In 1911 he was invited by Sir Douglas Mawson

Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson, OBE, FRS, FAA was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer and Academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, Mawson was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.-Early work:He was appointed geologist to an...

 to go as meteorologist on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition

Australasian Antarctic Expedition

The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was an Australasian scientific team that explored part of Antarctica between 1911 and 1914. It was led by the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson, who was knighted for his achievements in leading the expedition. In 1910 he began to plan an expedition to chart...

. In December 1911 the party left Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

 on board the S.Y. Aurora. In January 1912 they reached Commonwealth Bay

Commonwealth Bay

Commonwealth Bay is an open bay about 48 km wide at the entrance between Point Alden and Cape Gray in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1912 by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson, who established the main base of the expedition at Cape Denison at the head of the bay...

 in Adelie Land

Adélie Land

Adélie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between 136° E and 142° E , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a sector about 2,600 km toward the South Pole. It is claimed by France as one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, although not...

, Antarctica, where they set up Mawson Station

Mawson Station

Mawson Station is one of three permanent Australian bases in the Australian Antarctic Territory of East Antarctica. Named after Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, the base is managed by the Australian Antarctic Division...

. From there he led several expeditions into uncharted regions of Adelie Land

Adélie Land

Adélie Land is the portion of the Antarctic coast between 136° E and 142° E , with a shore length of 350 km and with its hinterland extending as a sector about 2,600 km toward the South Pole. It is claimed by France as one of five districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, although not...

 and King George V Land. These expeditions gathered vital information about the presence of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 in Antarctica. He was awarded the King's Polar Medal upon their return.
Madigan later served with the Royal Engineers

Royal Engineers

The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

 in France during the First World War. He saw action at the Battle of Loos

Battle of Loos

The Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. It marked the first time the British used poison gas during the war, and is also famous for the fact that it witnessed the first large-scale use of 'new' or Kitchener's Army...

 where he was wounded, and the Battle of the Somme.
Throughout the 1930s, Madigan participated in numerous aerial surveys of the "trackless areas" of Central Australia, during which time he named the Simpson Desert

Simpson Desert

The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km² ....

 after the president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia

Royal Geographical Society of Australasia

Royal Geographical Society of Australasia- On 22 June 1883, the Geographical Society of Australasia started at a meeting in Sydney . Branches were formed in Victoria and Queensland in the same year . In July 1885 the South Australian Branch started...

 -- Alfred Allen Simpson

Alfred Allen Simpson

This article is about the South Australian family of manufacturers. For the British legal historian and author Alfred William Brian Simpson see A. W. B...

. In 1939 he led the first major expedition across the Simpson Desert

Simpson Desert

The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km² ....

. Although he was not the first to cross the desert, he has become known as the last of the "classic" explorers of central Australia.
For many years he worked as a lecturer in geology at the University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

.

The daughter of Cecil Madigan is renowned Australian sculptor Rosemary Madigan, and her daughter is leading harpist Alice Giles.

Publications

• 1944 - Central Australia. Oxford University Press: Melbourne.
• 1946 - Crossing the Dead Heart. Georgian House: Melbourne. ISBN 1876622164