SIR PAUL EDMUND DE STRZELECKI (1797-1873)
Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki was a Polish nobleman, an explorer, geologist, scientist and philanthropist. He arrived in Australia (Sydney) in 1839. He discovered gold near Bathurst and Tasmania, explored the Snowy Mountains (incl. naming Mt. Kosciuszko) and published the first map of Gippsland. He is on record as having been concerned about the fragility of Australia’s natural environment and hence was given the title of ‘first Australian greenie’. In total, there are about 20 geographical features bearing his name in Australia. For example:
- Strzelecki Ranges, Victoria, in which is located the township of Strzelecki. The Strzelecki railway line ran through the ranges to the township.
- Mount Strzelecki, Northern Territory
- Strzelecki Peak, Flinders Island
- Strzelecki Creek, South Australia
- Strzelecki Highway, Victoria
- Strzelecki Track, South Australia
- Strzelecki Desert, east of Lake Eyre in South Australia
- Strzelecki Scenic Lookout, Newcastle, New South Wales
GENERAL TADEUSZ KOŚCIUSZKO: (1746-1817)
Engineer, freedom fighter and civil libertarian. Hero of two nations, Poland and the United States of America, he fought in the wars for their independence
JOHN PAUL II (KAROL WOJTYŁA) (1920–2005): the first non-Italian Pope in 456 years.At the age 58, he was the youngest pope since Pope Pius IX in 1846, who was 54. He reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was the second-longest serving Pope in history. He opened up the Church and initiated a dialogue with other denominations. The Pope remains a moral authority for many people around the world. He was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century.
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (Mikołaj Kopernik) (1473–1543): He was an astronomer, mathematician, jurist with a doctorate in law, classics scholar, translator, artist, physician, Catholic cleric, governor, diplomat and economist. Copernicus was the author of heliocentric theory of the universe, founder of modern astronomy.
LECH WAŁĘSA: Polish politician, trade – union organizer, and human rights activist. A charismatic leader of the Solidarity movement which contributed to the end of Communism in Europe, the first democratically elected President after the fall of communism. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
MARIAN REJEWSKI, JERZY RÓŻYCKI, HENRYK ZYGALSKI: Polish mathematicians and cryptologists credited for breaking German Enigma ciphers before and during World War II.
ANDRZEJ WAJDA: award-winning Polish film director. He is known especially for a trilogy of war films: A Generation (1954), Kanał (1956) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958). Four of his movies have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: The Promised Land (1975), The Maids of Wilko (1979), Man of Iron (1981), and Katyń (2007).
FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810-1849): the world renowned Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music.
CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ (1911–2004): an outstanding poet, prose writer and essayist. In 1980 he was awarded a Nobel Prize for literature.
AGNIESZKA HOLLAND: film, theatre and television director. Since 1981 she has been living and working abroad. She is a member of the European Film Academy and was nominated for an Oscar for ‘Bitter harvest’ (1985). Her best known films are: “The provincial actors’ (1978, won the FIPRESCI at the Cannes film festival), ‘Temperature’ (1980, won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival), ‘Lonely Woman’ (1981), ‘To Kill a Priest’ (1988), ‘Europa, Europa’ (1990, Golden Globe), ‘The Secret Garden’ (1994), ‘Total Eclipse’ (1995), ‘Washington Square’ (1997) ‘In Darkness’ (2011) (nominee for Best Foreign Language Film award at the 84th Academy Awards as Polish entry)
MARIA SKLODOWSKA-CURIE (1867–1934): renowned Polish physicist and chemist, who lived and worked in France. She was the first female professor at the Sorbonne. Together with her husband Pierre Curie she discovered polonium and radium in 1898. She was twice awarded the Nobel Prize: in 1903 in physics (jointly with her husband) for research in the area of natural radiation, and in 1911 in chemistry for extracting pure radium.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA (1923–2012): poet and literary critic. Awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1996, after other Poles Henryk Sienkiewicz, Wladyslaw Reymont and Czeslaw Milosz. In 2001 she became an honorary member of the American Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, the most important American distinction awarded to renowned artists. Her most important collections of verses are: ‘Why We Live’ (1952), ‘Questions Asked of Oneself’ (1993), ‘Calling the Yeti’ (1957), ‘A Hundred Joys’ (1967), ‘People on the Bridge’ (1986), ‘Optional lectures’ (1996), ‘View of a Grain of Sand’ (1996), ‘Beginning and End’ (1993) and ‘A Hundred Verses, a Hundred Joys’ (1997).
