But slowed down by raging blizzards and his ravaged physical state, he reached the final approach to the base only to see his ship, the Aurora, far out to sea on 8 February. Source: Australian Antarctic Expedition Scientific reports, Series A Vol 1. Part 1 by Douglas Mawson.
He was not alone though. A party of six men were waiting for him at the base. Using the wireless telegraph, they tried to recall the ship but the weather was so bad it could not return to shore. Mawson had to remain for another year and endure a second ferocious winter in the land of the blizzard.
On 23 March, he wrote: "I find my nerves in a very serious state, and from the feeling I have in the base of my head I have suspicion that I may go off my rocker very soon.
My nerves have evidently had a very great shock. Despite his ordeal, the additional year helped to ensure that the Australasian Antarctic Expedition was a scientific and technical success. Another winter gave them the opportunity to better study the electro-atmospheric phenomenon of the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights.
When the summer came, the remaining team were able to map the further reaches of this new part of the British empire, and survey and sample its wildlife and geology.
Mawson's team discovered the first meteorites in Antarctica. The second year also gave them the time to make the wireless equipment they had brought with them in work at long range. Mawson's expedition was the first to connect Antarctica to the outside world by radio. In , 70 years on, his face appeared on the Australian dollar bank note. His stock as a great explorer remained high as the reputation of Robert Falcon Scott as an expeditionary leader fell.
However, the subsequent publication of Mawson's Antarctic journals and access to the diaries of other Australasian Antarctic Expedition members have made some historians revise the glowing assessments of his exploratory and leadership qualities.
Even in the early days, some had questioned the way Mawson had commanded the disastrous far eastern sledging trek. Was it a sensible decision to put so much of their vital provisions on one sledge - the one which then disappeared with Ninnis into the crevasse?
The newer information has led to further criticism. A century after Mawson's return from the land of the blizzard, Mark Pharoah says the view now is of "a Mawson who wasn't so capable of navigating, a Mawson who took great risks at times in his drive to go the farthest of all the sledging parties, and a Mawson who, in the second year particularly, struggles to keep any leadership of the volunteer party which has stayed behind. And one has to wonder how he lived with the responsibility of two men dying under his command.
In December last year, I arrived in Commonwealth Bay with members of an expeditionary team aiming to follow in Mawson's footsteps. In most ways, our experience was entirely different. For one thing, barely a breeze blew for almost a week. It was only on the intended final day close to the East Antarctic shore that we received a true taste of the land of the blizzard.
Fierce winds began to blow from the south-east, mobilising a break-out of thousands of square kilometres of thick sea ice. Logistical cock-ups delayed our vessel's retreat from the area. Enquiries are now under way to establish whether they contributed to us becoming surrounded and trapped by the ice. We were then periodically lashed by blizzards for 10 days.
On 2 January we were rescued, thanks to the combined efforts of a Australian ice-breaker and a helicopter team from a Chinese ice-breaker, which itself became trapped trying to reach us. In total we were stuck in Antarctica for about two-and-a-half weeks longer than we had bargained. It was a minor delay - a faint echo of what happened to Mawson and his six companions.
Find more episodes or download the podcasts of the Discovery programme here. Image source, NLA. Conditions at the expedition's base were cramped and basic. The last photograph of Mawson, Mertz and Ninnis together. An unidentified expedition member with an "ice mask". Image source, Unknown. An exhausted-looking Douglas Mawson on his return from the ill-fated far east sledging trip.
The route of the far-eastern sledging party. He made major contributions to the knowledge of Australian geology. His main interest during the next thirty years was the 'Adelaide System' of Precambrian rocks, especially in the Flinders Ranges. He concentrated on Proterozoic stratigraphy and Precambrian glaciation, showing that glacial beds extended for miles km and that glacial conditions existed intermittently over much of Proterozoic time.
His interests also included the geochemistry of igneous and metamorphic rocks, the geological significance of algae, the origin of carbonaceous sediments and the identification of the rarer minerals.
His stature enabled him to draw widely on the assistance of specialists around the world in describing rocks and fossils collected in Australia and Antarctica. Mawson's extensive field-work was carried out on foot, by horse-and-cart, camel, and with motor vehicles. He was usually accompanied by students, who learned not only about geology but also about camping and survival in the bush, an activity which Mawson always enjoyed.
As a result of his initiatives, the support of the Australian National Research Council, and the backing of the Australian government which resulted from a decision of the Imperial Conference of , Mawson was invited to organize and lead the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition of and This expedition used the ship Discovery and did not establish land bases.
They made extensive geological and biological investigations at Iles Crozet, Iles Kerguelen, Heard Island and at many points along the miles km of coastline of Antarctica between 43 degrees E and degrees E longitude. They were greatly assisted by the use of a small aircraft. Much of the coast was mapped for the first time and it was shown to be continuous from the Ross Sea to Enderby Land and beyond. This work provided accurate geographic data that supported the Australian Antarctic Territory Acceptance Act of The Act came into force in and, by arrangement with the British government, established the Australian Antarctic Territory.
But the main occupation of the expedition was marine science, which included extensive oceanographic work and marine biological sampling. Over the next fifty years detailed examination of the various species collected was carried out by specialists all over the world and their results described in the thirteen volumes of the B. Scientific Reports. Sir Archibald Grenfell Price gives a cautious evaluation:.
Apart from geology and Antarctica, Mawson cultivated a broad range of interests including conservation, farming and forestry.
He was a persistent advocate of decimal measures, a supporter of strict regulation of the whaling industry, and was influential in having Macquarie Island declared a sanctuary. Mawson owned and worked a small farm, which he named Harewood, at Meadows, south of Adelaide, and he was a founder and, for over thirty years, a director of S.
Hardwoods Pty Ltd. He retired at That year the university published a volume of contributions to geology titled Sir Douglas Mawson Anniversary Volume and named the new geology building after him. Its library incorporates Mawson's collection of polar literature, his Antarctic diaries, a substantial collection of papers, correspondence, photographic records and objects of historical importance.
In the Douglas Mawson chair of geology was created. Numerous biological species and geographical places have been named in his honour, among them Mawson Coast and Mawson, the first permanent Australian station, established in , in Antarctica.
He was a fellow of the Royal Society from , a foundation fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and president of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science in Numerous honours and awards included: two Italian decorations, the Royal Geographical Society's Antarctic and Founders' medals, Polar medals, gold medals of the geographical societies of America, Chicago, Paris and Berlin, the von Mueller medal of A.
In the Australian Academy of Science established the Mawson lecture. As part of the celebrations of the centenary of Mawson's birth in , the Fourth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Science was held at the University of Adelaide and the proceedings were dedicated to his memory.
The A. But he was first and foremost a scientist, dedicated to the advancement of his subject and the encouragement of his students. He did not propound new, fundamental theories but he extended and developed geological thinking and knowledge over a wide range of topics and locations, and through his leadership created opportunities for the realization of major developments in many disciplines.
His lectures about Antarctica were widely acclaimed around the world. As a lecturer to undergraduates his reputation varies, but his inspiration is universally acclaimed. His infectious enthusiasm and friendliness were appreciated by students and colleagues. He was physically impressive, tall and strong but, more significantly, he was courageous, kind and noble.
He ranks high among our national heroes. Lady Mawson was tall and stately and they made a striking couple in the social life of Adelaide and of the university. She wrote biographies of her father and of her husband Mawson died at his Brighton home on 14 October following cerebral haemorrhage.
A memorial service, arranged by the university, was held at St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide. Portraits of Mawson by W. He suffered violent seizures and bouts of insanity. Soon after, he fell into a fever and died in his sleep. Mawson continued alone. A hundred miles from Commonwealth Bay, he fell down a crevasse. Fortunately he was tied to a sledge, which became pinned to the wall as he slid several metres down through the ice. After several attempts he managed to crawl out, and ate some chocolate to build up some strength.
He made a rope ladder and tied himself to it in case he fell down another crevasse. Which he did, several times. The extreme cold literally tore strips off Mawson's body.
One day he felt his feet getting particularly lumpy and sore and, after a mile of trudging through the snow, he took off his boots. The new skin underneath was very much abraded and raw. He did what he thought best in the circumstances — smeared the raw skin with lanoline and re-attached his soles to his feet. Outside the bandages, he wore six pairs of woollen socks, fur boots and a leather over-shoe. For a moment after these repairs, Mawson felt calm. A tingling sensation seemed to spread throughout my whole body, and I felt stronger and better.
By the start of February, Mawson had reached an ice cave his team had named "Aladdin's Cave", just 5km from Commonwealth Bay. Inside were pineapples and oranges, signs that his team had been there recently and that the Aurora had returned to Antarctica with supplies. Mawson was overjoyed at the sight of the fruit — partly because it was something that wasn't white. The joy was short-lived, however, as a blizzard set in and stopped Mawson moving on to his base camp.
He was stuck at the cave for five days. When the winds had abated, he made his way towards the base. As he got to the shore, he saw a whisp of smoke on the horizon, far out to sea.
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