2011 was a year for major anniversaries in Antarctic Exploration. It marked 100 years since Scott's ill-fated British expedition (an anniversary which captured a lot of media coverage) but many Australians may not know that it was also 100 years since the first Australian Antarctic Expedition headed by Sir Douglas Mawson.
Here are some resources we've picked from our small collection of Antarctic resources here in the Library and also online for you to get started and find out more about the Australian exploration of Antarctica, Australian Antarctic explorers and scientists, some surviving Antarctic exploration vessels and where to find out all about Scott's Terra Nova Expedition.
Books
Sir Douglas Mawson
London Hodder and Stoughton, [1938].
RARE 919.89 MAW
Read this online at Open Library
The Adelie blizzard: Mawson's forgotten newspaper 1913
preface by Emma McEwin; introduction by Elizabeth Leane and Mark Pharaoh.
Adelaide The Friends of the State Library of South Australia in association with the Friends of Mawson, 2010.
FOLIO 919.89 ADE
With the Aurora in the Antarctic 1911-1914
John King Davis. London A. Melrose, 1919
Available online at Open Library
Davis was captain of the Mawson expedition vessel Aurora and second in command of the expedition.
Trial by ice: the Antarctic journals of John King Davis
Edited by Louise Crossley. Bluntisham, Huntingdon Bluntisham Books Norwich, Norfolk Erskine Press, 1997.
919.8 TRI
John King Davis had a long career in Antarctic exploration
T.W. Edgeworth David: a life: geologist, adventurer, soldier
David Branagan. Canberra National Library of Australia, 2005.
551.092 BRA
Antarctic odyssey
Phillip Law. Melbourne Heinemann Australia, 1983.
919.8904 LAW
Dr Phillip Law was an important figure in the Antarctic Division and ANARE for many years.
Ice Bird the first single-handed voyage to Antarctica
David Lewis. London Collins, 1975.
910.09167 LEW
Australian Dr David Lewis' pioneering voyage.
An empire of ice: Scott Shackleton and the heroic age of Antarctic science
Edward J. Larson. New Haven London Yale University Press, 2011.
919.89 LAR
The silence calling: Australians in Antarctica 1947–97
Tim Bowden. St. Leonards, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 1997.
919.8904 BOW
Explore Antarctica
Louise Crossley. Cambridge Melbourne Cambridge University Press, 1995.
919.89 CRO
A good book about Antarctic exploration and research for younger readers.
Antarctic artefacts: a selective description and annotated catalogue of artefacts in the Mawson Collection at the University of Adelaide
Richard G. Ferguson. University of Adelaide, c1995.
919.89074 FER
Deb: geographer, scientist, Antarctic explorer
Peter Speak.Guildford, Surrey Polar in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, 2008.
919.89 DEB
A biography of Australian scientist polar explorer and Scott expedition team member Frank Debenham.
Mawson and the ice men of the heroic age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen
Peter FitzSimons. North Sydney : William Heinemann, 2011
919.89 MAW (251522)
A good introduction to Mawson and the famous polar explorers.
Frank Hurley a photographer's life
Alasdair McGregor. Camberwell, Vic. Viking,2009.
770.92 MCG
Mawson's last survivor: the story of Dr Alf Howard AM
Anna Bemrose. Brisbane: Boolarong Press, 2011
919.89 BEM (254989)
The story of Dr Alf Howard Chemist and Hydrologist and his lifetime of work and interest in the Antarctic.
Mawson's huts: the birthplace of Australia's Antarctic heritage
David Jensen; Mawson's Huts Foundation. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2008.
919.89 MAW
Aurora Australis: 20 years in the ice: a celebration in photographs
Doug Thost. [Australia D. Thost], 2010.
FOLIO 919.89 THO
The icebreaker and Australian supply ship Aurora Australis.
The Antarctic voyage of HMAS Wyatt Earp
Phillip Law. St Leonards, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin, 1995.
919.8904 LAW
LST 3501: historic voyage to the Antarctic 1947–48
transcript by George H. Hinton. Garden Island, N.S.W. Naval Historical Society of Australia, 1994.
919.8904 HIN
Scott's last expedition
Steve Parker. London: Natural History Museum, 2011
919.89 SCO (248445,52)
Book accompanying the travelling exhibition from the Natural History Museum. On display at the Australian National Maritime Museum, 17 June – 16 October 2011
Find these books and lots of others on the topic in a library near you in our Antarctica 100 years – Mawson and Scott list on Trove.
Buying books? Shop online at the museum store.
Online resources
100 years of Australian Antarctic expeditions are celebrated at the Centenary of Australian Antarctic exploration.
You can also retrace Sir Douglas Mawson's footsteps by following his day by day diary entries on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/douglasmawson
From the National Library's Trove portal here are books, pictures, diaries, newspaper stories and more on Sir Douglas Mawson and the Australian Antarctic Expedition.
The Sir Douglas Mawson collection of Antarctic photographs held at the National Library includes many photographs by the photographer Frank Hurley.
Find out what's inside Mawson's huts and their ongoing conservation.
The Cool Antarctica website has a very useful page with biographical details of the crew of the Aurora and the members of the Mawson expedition. Also included are diary entries from a young able seaman aboard the Aurora called Bert Lincoln.
A search of the Australian Dictionary of Biography online reveals many entries for Australians with Antarctic affiliations such as Sir Douglas Mawson. While the Australian Antarctic Division's People of Antarctic History pages has biographies of influential figures in Australian Antarctic science.
The Powerhouse Museum has a large collection of objects relating to Antarctica. Curator Margaret Simpson has written an interesting blog post on the Mawson sledge.
Museum objects with Antarctic associations from the Collections Australia Newtork (CAN) database.
Stories with an Antarctic interest from the 1930s onwards from the Australian Women's Weekly also make interesting reading.
Find out more about Australian exploration in Antarctica at Trove.
Scott 's Terra Nova Expedition 1910-1913
The ill-fated Scott expedition is a story which has always captured the public imagination.
Here is a list of resources including books, websites and blogs we put together to accompany the exhibition 'Scott's last expedition' (featured at the museum from 15 June – 16 October 2011).
Ships Used in Antarctic Exploration
Ships of the Antarctic Explorers has with all sort of interesting information including comparisons and is well suited to school projects.
The SY Aurora Wikipedia entry contains a good article about the career and fate of Mawson's expedition ship for the Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911–1914).
Not all Antarctic exploration ships have survived but here are some that have :- The Fram from the Fram Museum in Norway.
- The RRS Discovery in Dundee Scotland.
- The James Caird at Dulwich College
- The sloop Ice Bird from the Powerhouse Museum collection.
Ships of the Australian Antarctic Division is a photo gallery of Australian Antarctic research and supply ships.
Australian activities in Antarctica today
The Australian Antarctic Division is the home of our Antarctic program and produces The Australian Antarctic magazine.
ANARE is the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions and is comprised of both government and government groups and has been operating since 1947 with a focus on research. The ANARE club website has more information about its history and activities including the Aurora journal.
Antarctic heritage conservation
The Mawson's Huts Foundation was established to conserve huts from Mawson's expedition and their website details the history of the huts and conservation efforts to date. Expedition members post to the blog.
The Antarctic conservation blog allows you to follow the work of Antarctic Heritage Trust conservators currently working and living in Antarctica conserving 4 Antarctic explorers' huts, including those used by Scott and Shackleton on their expeditions to Antarctica. Entries have been written by conservation teams from 2006 onwards. Find out about living and working in Antarctica. Includes useful links to related historical information and images.
If you want to find out about other expeditions and the work of other countries in Antarctica The list of Antarctic expeditions at Wikipedia is a good place to start and covers the earliest expeditions of all nationalities right through to the modern era.