Douglas Mawson, who would later become the leader of Australia’s first Antarctic expedition, undertook his first trip to Antarctica as part of Ernest Shackleton’s “Nimrod Expedition”, 1908. Though he was young and this was his first foray in to the icy territory, his obvious intelligence, robust constitution and leadership skills, marked him out early for momentous work, and he was tasked with joining teams to explore Mt Erebus and to locate the Magnetic South Pole.
The following episode will then focus on Mawson’s leadership of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition itself.
(52 mins)
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REFERENCES: 21 – Mawson: Antarctic Exploration Pt 1
Recommended Podcast: The Infinite Monkey Cage
First Australian solar farm in Antarctica opens at Casey research station. Australian Antarctic Division. (2019). http://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2019/first-australian-solar-farm-in-antarctica-opens-at-casey-research-station
Poles and directions: Australian Antarctic Division. Retrieved from http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/environment/geography/poles-and-directions
Ayres, P. (1999). Mawson: a life. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Hall, L. (2011). Douglas Mawson: The life of an explorer. Sydney: New Holland Publishers.
Jacka, F., & Jacka, E. (1988). Mawson’s Antarctic diaries. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
National Snow & Ice Data Centre (NSIDC). (2019). Arctic vs. Antarctic. Retrieved from https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/difference.html
Arctic ice pack (Wikipedia). (2019). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_ice_pack
Nimrod Expedition (Wikipedia). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod_Expedition#Northern_Party