Australasian Antarctic Expedition

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Newly constructed Main Base Hut

The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was an Australian scientific team that explored part of Antarctica between 1911 and 1914. It was led by the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson, who was knighted for his achievements in leading the expedition. In 1910 he began to plan an expedition to chart the 2000-mile long coastline of Antarctica to the south of Australia. The Australian Association for the Advancement of Science approved of his plans and contributed substantial funds for the expedition. The remaining funds were raised by public subscription and additional donations.

The team selected for the expedition came primarily from universities in Australia and New Zealand. Of the men who would occupy bases on the Antarctic continent, twenty-two were Australian residents. Four were New Zealanders, three British and one Swiss. Three of the leaders (Mawson, Wild and Davis) were veterans of other Antarctic voyages.

They would sail on the Newfoundland sealing vessel Aurora, a steam-powered sailing vessel with a length of 165 feet and a displacement of 600 tons. The ship underwent modifications for the trip, including adding three large tanks for storing fresh water. The Aurora captain was John King Davis.

The vessel departed for Macquarie Island on December 2, 1911, arriving on December 11 after surviving stormy weather during the crossing. A second vessel, the Toroa, followed with supplies and passengers. Departing Macquarie Island on December 23, the Aurora began exploring the coastal areas, during which they discovered and named King George V Land and Queen Mary Land.

Commonwealth Bay has since been described as "the windiest coastal place on earth"

The expedition built their main base, or winter quarters, at Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay, where eighteen men spent the winter of 1912 and seven spent the winter of 1913. (Their huts still stand - two intact and two as ruins: Mawson's Huts, now managed as an historic site by the Australian Antarctic Division.) They also built quarters on Macquarie Island and a western base on the Shackleton Ice Shelf, but these no longer survive.

The teams at all three bases conducted routine scientific and meteorological observations, which were recorded in great detail in the voluminous reports of the expedition (not published until 1922-1942). They also overcame months of failures with equipment and masts by eventually establishing the first Antarctic wireless radio connection (linked to Hobart, via Macquarie Island).

Coastal and inland sledging journeys enabled the teams to explore previously unknown lands. In the second half of 1912, there were five major journeys from the main base and two from the western base.

During a sledging trip to the east of the base led by Douglas Mawson and hauled by sledge dogs handled by Xavier Mertz and Belgrade Ninnis, a crevasse swallowed up Ninnis, a team of six dogs, and the sled containing most of their food. The survivors began a brutal journey home, during which they ate the remaining dogs for food. Mertz became delirious and died during the return, leaving Mawson the only survivor. He cut his sled in half with a pen knife and dragged the sled with geological specimens but very minimal food 160 km back to the base at Cape Denison. He arrived on February 8, 1913, just hours after Davis's recovery party left on the Aurora, and was nursed back to health while staying on with six volunteers for an unplanned second year. Mawson documents this harrowing journey in his book, "The Home of the Blizzard".

Other members were Frank Hurley as official photographer, Frank Wild as leader of the western base, Charles Hoadley as geologist, and Cecil Madigan as meteorologist.