Macquarie Island party, 1911-14

Educational value

• This asset shows the members of Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-14 team - Douglas Mawson (1882 - 1958), Australia's most famous Antarctic explorer, became interested in exploring the coast of Antarctica that lay immediately south of Australia after he took part in Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition in 1907; Mawson recruited the 31 members of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, mostly from universities in Australia and New Zealand; their average age was around 24.
• It portrays the members of the expedition who set up a base at Macquarie Island - the expedition established three bases in Antarctica; the main one was at Cape Denison under Mawson, another was the Western Base on the Shackleton Ice Shelf under Frank Wild and the third one was at Macquarie Island under G F Ainsworth, shown second right; when the team arrived they found the crew from the shipwrecked 'Clyde' stranded on the island; also living on the island were approximately six men who hunted whales for blubber during summer.
• It shows the team that worked on Macquarie Island from December 1911 until late 1913 - the team was originally intended to stay on the island for one season, but on 7 March 1913, Ainsworth received a message from Mawson saying that he wanted the Macquarie Island station to keep going until the end of the year; Ainsworth asked the team if they wanted to return home in April or remain until the end of the year; all of the men decided to stay; food supplies were a major problem, with their reduced rations needing to be supplemented by local fish and elephant seals; Sawyer became ill and was taken back to Australia in a sealing vessel in early November; the rest of the party was evacuated in late November.
• It shows the five men who had two main tasks - establish a wireless relay station and set up the island's first scientific station; during their period on the island, they studied its botany, zoology, meteorology and geology.
• It may record the successful establishment of the first radio link between Australia and Antarctica and with Mawson's main base at Cape Denison - the group erected wireless masts, a receiving hut and an engine house at the summit of Wireless Hill, a high flat-topped hill at the north end of the island, which enabled the expeditioners to communicate, when the weather conditions permitted, with Australia and New Zealand, with Cape Denison and various ships around the coast.
• It provides an insight into the terrain of Macquarie Island - a subantarctic island located in the Southern Ocean, Macquarie Island is 34 kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide at its widest point and has a total surface area of 128 square kilometres.
• It shows the apparel worn at the time in that environment - natural fibres and materials had to be relied upon in the early 1900s as the warm, waterproof synthetic fibres of today had not been invented; characteristic single-piece oversuits, made of gabardine, are featured here; other items of apparel such as gloves and caps were made from wool and fur; adequate clothing was crucial to survival.
• It shows only men in the exploration party - women were considered unsuitable for such physically challenging conditions and many of the occupations required, in particular trade and technical positions, were traditionally dominated by men in the Australian community; women first visited Antarctica in the summer of 1975-76 and even today, on average, only 10 per cent of expeditioners are female.

Year level

6; 7; 8; 9

Topics Scientists Exploration