Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson OBE F.R.S. (May 5 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian Antarctic explorer and geologist. Born at Bradford, Yorkshire, his family emigrated to Australia in 1884 where he was brought up. He was educated at Fort Street High School and the University of Sydney, where he gained degrees in mining engineering and science. After working as a junior demonstrator in chemistry and being appointed geologist to an expedition to the New Hebrides in 1903, he became a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1905.

In 1907, Mawson joined the British Antarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton, as a geologist. He was a member of the group which was the first to ascend Mount Erebus, and for some time led the team attempting to reach the South Magnetic Pole.

Mawson turned down an invitation to join Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1910; Australian geologist Griffith Taylor went instead. Mawson chose to lead his own expedition, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land, the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at the time was almost entirely unexplored. The objectives were to carry out geographical exploration and scientific studies, including visiting the South Magnetic Pole.

The expedition, using the ship Aurora commanded by Captain John King Davis, landed at Cape Denison on Commonwealth Bay on 8 January 1911 and established the Main Base. A second camp was located to the west on the ice shelf in Queen Mary Land. Cape Denison proved to be unrelentingly windy, the average wind speed for the entire year was about 50 mph (80 km/h). They built a hut on the rocky cape and wintered through nearly constant blizzards.

The exploration phase, which began the following austral summer, was carried out by three groups. Mawson's team, which was to trek east, consisted of Xavier Mertz, Lieutenant B. E. S. Ninnis and himself. Nearing the end of their trek East, Ninnis, his dog team and sledge with most of the provisions fell through a crevasse and were lost.

Mawson and Mertz turned back immediately. Mertz died during the return journey and Mawson continued alone. On one occasion during his return trip to the Main Base, he fell through the lid of a crevasse and was saved only by his sledge remaining on the ice above him. When he finally made it back to Cape Denison, the ship Aurora had left only a few hours before. Mawson, and five who had remained behind to look for him, wintered a second year until early 1914. The book Home of the Blizzard describes his experiences. His party, and those at the western base, had explored large areas of the Antarctic coast, describing its geology, biology and meteorology, and more closely defining the location of the south magnetic pole.

On his return, he married Paquita Delprat and was knighted, but the public took little interest in his achievements, being completely taken up with the Scott disaster and the outbreak of World War I. Mawson served in the war as a Major in the British Ministry of Munitions. Returning to Adelaide he pursued his academic studies, taking further expeditions abroad, including a joint British, Australian and New Zealand expedition to the Antarctic in 1929–1931. The work done by the expedition led to the formation of the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1936. He also spent much of his time researching the geology of the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Upon his retirement from teaching in 1952 he was made Emeritus Professor. He died in 1958 at the age of 76.

His image appeared from 1984-1996 on the Australian paper one hundred dollar note. Also, Mawson Peak (Heard Island), Mawson Station (Antarctica), the geology building on the main University of Adelaide campus, and a South Australian TAFE institute are named after him.

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