Our guest speaker this year is multi-award winning Film Maker – Michael Dillon AM FRGS ACS

Michael Dillon was an aspiring 32 year old adventure filmmaker when he wrote to Hillary applying for the jobs of Cinematographer and Film Director on the 1977 Ocean to Sky Expedition. His multi award wining documentaries include Everest Sea to Summit (1990), one of the most internationally awarded adventure documentaries ever, Beyond Everest (1999) about Hillary’s ongoing work with the Sherpa people, Hillary: Ocean to Sky (2019), A Little Bit Mongolian (2013) and The Great White Whale (2023)

Michael is a pioneering adventure cinematographer whose many award-winning films encompass the world’s most spectacular destinations from the Himalayas to the Andes, Antarctica, the Arctic, the Pacific and Africa. In 1984 Michael filmed Australia’s first ascent of Everest, unsupported, without bottled oxygen and via White Limbo, an avalanche prone and unrepeated North Face route. A couple of years later, he conceived the idea and filmed Tim Macartney-Snape’s full ascent of Everest from sea level. The resulting film, Everest: Sea to Summit became the most internationally awarded adventure documentary ever.

An intrepid adventurer himself, Michael was the first Australian to receive the Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award, was awarded the inaugural Australian Geographic Spirit of Adventure Award in 1987 and is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. Inspired by Hillary’s work among the Sherpas, he became a founding director of the Australian Himalayan Foundation and volunteer filmmaker for the Himalayan trust NZ. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2004 in recognition of his contribution to the film industry and his humanitarian work.