Luigi D'Albertis

Who was Luigi D'Albertis?

Luigi Maria D'Albertis was a flamboyant Italian naturalist and explorer who, in 1876, became the first person to chart the Fly River in Papua New Guinea. He took eight weeks to steam some 580 miles up the Fly River in an Australian launch, the Neva. On board as engineer was young Lawrence Hargrave, later to become an aviation pioneer. D'Albertis kept a pet python on board to prevent his motley crew from pilfering the stores. He also fired off exploding rockets to keep any hostile natives at bay. His expedition collected specimens of birds, plants and insects. The Neva forced its way upstream until brought to a halt by the shallows. They then steamed downriver to a tributary called the Alice, and d'Albertis cajoled his crew up this river with promises of gold. Eventually stricken by malaria and crippled by rheumatism in both legs, he admitted defeat. He tried once again in the following year, but did not reach as far as before, and returned to Europe. An excellent account of d'Albertis' expeditions up the Fly in the Neva and his various political and personal problems with his contemporaries and the inhabitants of Papua are told in Goode, J. 1977 Rape of the Fly.