The character arc of Beau Miles
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in 1979 in Australia, the son of a painter. Between then and now sit an undergraduate degree begun at Monash in 1999, an attempt at a four thousand kilometre kayak trip around the southern tip of Africa, six hundred and fifty kilometres run across the Australian Alps, a doctorate in outdoor education filmed as a six part series from 2016, a thesis published in 2018, a lectureship given up in 2021, a first book the same year, and fourteen hundred trees planted in a single day. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Beau Miles?
He left the lectureship to walk to work.
His father is a painter. He started as an undergraduate at Monash University in Melbourne in 1999, came back to lecture there in outdoor education, and took his doctorate in the same subject. Before any of the films, he attempted a four thousand kilometre kayak trip around the southern tip of Africa and ran six hundred and fifty kilometres across the Australian Alps, which is the part of the record that explains everything after it.
In 2016 he started a YouTube channel, not to become a film maker but to carry a doctoral project: a six part series shot by kayak. The thesis, an autoethnographic study of sea kayaking, which is to say a study of himself doing it, was published in 2018. The channel turned into something else. He began setting himself deliberately strange, deliberately small projects and filming them properly: walking ninety kilometres from his home to the university rather than driving, eating nothing but beans for forty days, running a marathon at the rate of one mile every hour across a full twenty four hours.
In 2021 he left the lecturing job, became a full time father and film maker, and published his first book, The Backyard Adventurer. That year he also planted a tree every minute for twenty four hours straight, making a small forest of fourteen hundred trees and shrubs on a patch of paddock in West Gippsland. The argument running underneath all of it is that an adventure does not require an aeroplane, a sponsor or a mountain, and that the ground you already live on will do.
The moments
Beau Miles's timeline.
The 1990s
An undergraduate at Monash
Everyday. He arrived as a student and stayed long enough to teach.
The 2010s
Africa, and the Alps
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Four thousand kilometres by kayak, attempted. The word attempted is in the record.
A channel for a thesis
Milestone, and it changed everything. The channel was a method, not a career. That came later.
A doctorate on himself
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A study of himself doing the thing, submitted and accepted.
Ninety kilometres to work
Milestone, and it changed everything. He walked to work. It took two days and it was the best film he had made.
The 2020s
He quits the lectureship
Milestone, and it changed everything. A salary, a title and a pension, given up for a camera and two daughters.
Keep the lectureship
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: make the films, taken, or stay on staff. He published The Backyard Adventurer the same year and planted a forest in a day.
Fourteen hundred trees
Milestone, and it changed his direction. One tree a minute, for a full day and night, until there was a forest.
West Gippsland is the whole territory now, and the forest he planted in a day is growing. What it has set moving is a very cheap idea that a great many people needed: that the interesting thing is usually within walking distance, and that the only thing missing is somebody willing to take it seriously.
What he wrote
Books by Beau Miles
- 2021
The Backyard Adventurer
The case that the adventure is already within walking distance of the back door.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His gave up a university job to prove that an adventure can start at your own back door. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Beau Miles: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Beau Miles's character arc?
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Where does this timeline of Beau Miles's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Beau Miles, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Monash University records for his doctorate in outdoor education and 2018 thesis.
- Publisher records for The Backyard Adventurer, 2021.