The Man Who Walked Around Australia: Aiden De Brune’s Extraordinary Journeys on Foot
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On 24th November, 1920, a journalist named Herbert Charles Cull left Fremantle in Western Australia and began walking towards Sydney. There was no support crew, no supply vehicles, and no elaborate expedition plan. He simply intended to walk across the country and record the journey as he went.
Cull expected the walk from Fremantle to Sydney to take about 85 days. It eventually took 90.
By the time he reached Sydney he had travelled nearly 4,500 kilometres, much of it following the recently completed Trans Australian Railway across the vast interior of the continent. Along the way he kept a diary, recorded distances, and gathered signatures from people who confirmed he had passed through their towns.
By the time the journey ended he had also adopted a new name. The man who set out as Herbert Charles Cull finished the walk calling himself Aiden De Brune.
The transcontinental walk, impressive as it was, turned out to be only the beginning.
From London Printer to Australian Writer
Herbert Charles Cull was born in London and trained as a printer. Like many people in Britain during the early twentieth century, he eventually looked towards Australia as a place where a new life might be possible.
He arrived in Fremantle on 23rd May, 1910. Later that year his wife Ethel Elizabeth Crofts and their son Lionel followed him, arriving in Western Australia in November 1910.
The arrangement did not last long. In 1912, Ethel and Lionel returned to England. Cull remained in Australia and would spend the rest of his life there.
By 1920, he was working in journalism. He had a job with the Bunbury Herald, where he wrote serialised fiction for the newspaper. Stories such as The Pursuits of Mr Peter Pell and The Mystery of the Nine Stars appeared in instalments.
Serial fiction was a staple of newspapers at the time. Adventure and mystery stories were published chapter by chapter, encouraging readers to buy the next issue to see what happened next.
One of Cull’s stories was still unfinished when he abruptly left the newspaper in November 1920 and began the walk that would make his name.
Walking Across the Continent
Cull’s route stretched across southern Australia.
Starting in Fremantle, he travelled through Kalgoorlie, crossed the Nullarbor Plain, and continued through Port Augusta, Adelaide, and Melbourne, before finally reaching Sydney.
For much of the journey he followed the Trans Australian Railway. Completed in 1917, the railway linked Western Australia with the eastern states for the first time by rail. It ran for more than 1,600
kilometres between Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta, cutting through some of the most remote parts of the country.
The railway also included one of the most famous pieces of track in the world. Across the Nullarbor Plain runs a 478 kilometre straight section, the longest straight railway line anywhere.
The name comes from the Latin nullus arbor, meaning “no trees.” The region is a vast limestone plateau stretching across southern Australia with little vegetation and long distances between settlements.
Summer temperatures can rise above 40°C, and in the early twentieth century the only significant infrastructure across the plain was the railway itself.
Cull walked roughly 400 miles of the Nullarbor in 11½ days, following the railway line through the open landscape. Railway maintenance camps and occasional passing trains were often the only signs of human activity.
For Cull, the railway provided something extremely useful: a navigable path across otherwise difficult terrain. Water tanks, rail depots, and occasional settlements existed along the track, offering rare points of relief in an otherwise empty landscape.
Even so, the journey required remarkable endurance. Cull averaged around 48 kilometres per day, a demanding pace maintained for three months.
By the time he reached Sydney he had walked 2,792.5 miles (4,494 kilometres).
That distance is roughly comparable to walking from London to Baghdad.
Distances and Claimed Records
Cull kept careful notes throughout the journey and later claimed record times for several sections of the walk.
Among them were:
Fremantle to Kalgoorlie - 387 miles (623 km) in 10½ days
Across Western Australia from Fremantle to Deakin - 841 miles (1,353 km) in 24 days
Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta via the Trans Australian Railway - 1,051 miles (1,691 km) in 46 days
Across the Nullarbor Plain - 400 miles (644 km) in 11½ days
Fremantle to Adelaide - 1,710 miles (2,752 km) in 52 days
Fremantle to Melbourne - 2,199 miles (3,539 km) in 68 days
Adelaide to Melbourne - 489 miles (787 km) in 16 days
Adelaide to Sydney - 1,082 miles (1,741 km) in 38 days
Melbourne to Sydney593.5 miles (955 km) in 22 days
The complete journey from Fremantle to Sydney took 90 days.
Long distance walking had once been a popular spectator activity known as pedestrianism, particularly in Britain and the United States during the late nineteenth century. By the 1920s the craze had faded, but endurance walks still attracted newspaper coverage, and Cull’s journey drew attention along the route.
A Diary of the Journey
Throughout the walk Cull kept a daily diary.
Each entry recorded:
the distance walked that daythe location where he stoppedthe total mileage reached
He also invited people he met along the route to sign the diary to confirm his presence. Railway workers, station masters, and townspeople often added their names and short comments.
This served as a simple but effective verification system. Long distance walking claims were sometimes questioned, and the signatures helped prove he had actually passed through the places he listed.
After completing the journey Cull donated both the diary and a typed transcript to the State Library of New South Wales, where the documents are still preserved.
Becoming Aiden De Brune
Somewhere during the journey Cull began introducing himself under a different name.
He started calling himself Aiden De Brune.
The reason is not entirely clear. It may have begun as a pen name used for his serial fiction writing. Pseudonyms were common among newspaper authors at the time.
By the time he arrived in Sydney after the walk, the name had effectively replaced his birth identity.
An Even Larger Plan
The walk across Australia might have been enough for most people.
For De Brune it was simply preparation for something bigger.
On 20th September, 1921, he left Sydney on foot again with an ambitious goal: to walk around the entire perimeter of Australia.
He described the plan as:
“to leave Sydney on foot, to walk ten thousand miles around Australia, calling at all the ports en route on the four coasts, and to return to Sydney.”
He believed the journey could be completed in twelve months.
It would take far longer.
Two and a Half Years on Foot
The route carried De Brune north through Queensland, across the tropical coastline toward Darwin, down through Western Australia, and eventually back across the southern states.
Distances between settlements in northern Australia were immense, and conditions ranged from tropical humidity to desert heat.
The journey ultimately lasted two and a half years.
On 4th March, 1924, De Brune returned to Sydney, completing the circuit he had begun nearly three years earlier.
Throughout the walk he continued to keep his diary, recording distances and gathering signatures from people who confirmed his presence.
Recognition Along the Way
During the walk De Brune met J T Beckett, a journalist who encountered him in Darwin.
Beckett later wrote about him in a newspaper article when De Brune had reached Penong in South Australia, still about 1,700 miles from completing the journey.
He ended the article with a remark that captured the scale of the undertaking:
“Aiden de Brune has not finished his walk but should he never move another yard further, he will have put up a record that few, if any, will ever attempt to equal.”
Returning to Writing
After finishing the journey around Australia, De Brune settled in Sydney.
He returned to newspaper writing, producing serialised mystery stories. His experience as a long distance walker gave him a degree of public recognition, which likely helped his writing career.
During this period he also crossed paths with Marion Bell, who had become the first woman to drive around Australia. Bell passed through Sydney during her journey, and De Brune wrote about her experiences.
The meeting highlighted how quickly travel was changing. De Brune’s journey had been completed entirely on foot, while Bell was travelling the same coastline by motor car.
The Final Years
Aiden De Brune remained in Sydney for the rest of his life. By this point his adopted name had completely replaced his birth name.
He died in Sydney on 15th February, 1946.
His death was registered under the name Aidan De Brune, and he was buried in Botany Cemetery.
A Remarkable but Little Known Journey
Today De Brune’s walks are rarely mentioned outside historical archives, but they remain remarkable achievements.
First he walked 4,500 kilometres across Australia.
Then he spent two and a half years walking around the entire perimeter of the continent.
Unlike modern endurance expeditions, he travelled without GPS, support teams, or organised logistics. The most detailed record of his journeys remains the diary he kept along the way, now preserved in the State Library of New South Wales.
For a man who began life as a London printer, it was an unexpected way to leave a mark on Australian history.
