from the special collections of the Fryer Library
Douglas Mawson – A Century On
1911-1914

December 2011 marks the centenary of the start of the first Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), which was led by Sir Douglas Mawson. The story of this historic expedition can be traced using material held by Fryer Library.

In a letter dated 18 November 1913, sent to expeditioner
Edward Bage, Teresa Patterson writes:

At last the "Aurora" is to leave to bring you all home again. What a long long wait it must have been for you all. To us here, when the tidings came that some had to be left behind for another year it seemed appalling . . .

Lieut. Edward Frederick Robert Bage, R.A.E.

John King Davis

Captain John King, Master of the "Aurora"

Sir Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson, Expedition Leader

Francis James Hurley, Photographer

Map. Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-14

Basilisk and Ginger

Basilisk & Ginger, Cape Denison

The AAE was scheduled to return from Antarctica in early 1913, having spent two summers and one winter carrying out scientific and exploration work. Several bases were established, including the main base at Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay, site of the historic Mawson's Hut. So why is Patterson writing to Bage late in 1913, when he and the other expeditioners should have already returned?

Published accounts by members of the expedition help to tell the story.

Captain John Davis master of the Aurora, published his account titled With the "Aurora" in the Antarctic 1911-1914. He reveals that, on returning to Antarctica in early 1913 to pick up the expeditioners, he discovered only two of five sledging parties, who had set out to explore various areas, had returned to the main base. Another returned just after the ship arrived. Davis recounts:

16.1.13  Dr Mawson had left a letter for me, with instructions to take charge, in case he had not returned by January 15th

The Western sledging party returned on 18 January, but of Mawson and his two companions, Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz, there was no sign. Davis continues:

On January 20th all the members of the shore-party were assembled at Winter Quarters with the exception of the leader and his two comrades...
I came to the conclusion that Dr Mawson ... would have carried out his expressed intention, unless something had occurred of a serious nature. The party was now FIVE DAYS overdue. The "Aurora" would have to sail westward, to relieve Dr. Wild’s party... not later than January 30th.
I decided to have a provisional notice posted up in the Hut, stating that the non arrival of Dr Mawson’s party rendered it necessary to prepare for the establishment of a Relief Expedition to remain in Antarctica for another year, if necessary; and, appointing Messrs Bage, Bickerton, Hodgeman, Jeffryes, and Dr McLean members of such a party, under the command of Mr C. Madigan.

Davis left on February 7. Mawson returned to camp just hours after the departure of the Aurora; Ninnis and Mertz had both perished, and Mawson had completed the last 100 miles of the trip alone, an incredible feat of endurance. The ship was unable to return due to bad weather, so Mawson, Bage and their five companions weathered another winter before returning to Australia in February 1914.

Mawson gave his own account of the AAE in The Home of the Blizzard, which he started writing while recuperating from the injuries and privations he had suffered. Fryer holds an association copy of Mawson’s book. The inscription reads:

To Macpherson Robertson, with warm appreciation of his splendid services to Australia and to the Empire and of his princely patronage to Scientific Enterprise and with warmest regards from Douglas Mawson 26.6.29

Macpherson Robertson founded the famous Australian confectionary firm MacRobertson’s. A wealthy businessman, Robertson was also a philanthropist, giving substantial donations to the joint British/Australian/New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) of 1929 to 1931. Mawson led this expedition and acknowledged Robertson’s generosity by naming MacRobertson Land in Antarctica in his honour.

Another publishing venture underway in the winter of 1913 was The Adelie Blizzard. Mawson had intended to produce a newspaper in Antarctica, and some articles had been written during the first winter. With Mawson busy working on The Home of the Blizzard, chief medical officer Archie McLean was appointed editor.

A signed agreement between Mawson and McLean reveals the newspaper was to be published sometime after March 1915 and the money raised from sales would help to pay the salaries of the six men who stayed behind to search for Mawson, Ninnis and Mertz.

Five issues were produced between April and October 1913. Unfortunately the scheme failed to find a publisher, though McLean believed that ‘some day’ it would be published. He turned out to be right; in 2010 a facsimile edition was produced by the Friends of the State Library of South Australia in conjunction with the Friends of Mawson at the South Australian Museum. Fryer holds a copy.

Renowned photographer Frank Hurley was also a member of the AAE, and accounts by Hurley and biologist to the expedition, Charles Laseron, are also held by Fryer, adding to the published record, along with Mawson’s diaries, which were published in a single volume in the 1980s. Accounts of other Antarctic expeditions, such as those by Shackleton, Amundsen and Scott, are also in the collection.

And what of Edward Bage, to whom Teresa Patterson wrote? After surviving the extremes of Antarctica, and weathering a second winter with Mawson, he landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, 1915, and was killed by enemy fire twelve days later.

Penny Whiteway, Fryer Library

Sources:

  • The Adelie blizzard : Mawson’s forgotten newspaper 1913. Reprinted with preface by Emma McEwin ; introduction by Elizabeth Leane and Mark Pharaoh. Adelaide : Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2010
  • Davis, John K. With the "Aurora" in the Antarctic, 1911-1914, London: Andrew Melrose, 1919
  • Ennis, Helen. Frank Hurley’s Antarctica, Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2010
  • Hurley, Frank. Argonauts of the South, London: G.P. Putnams, 1925
  • Laseron, C.F. South with Mawson, Sydney: Australasian Publishing, 1947
  • Mawson, Douglas. The Home of the Blizzard, London: William Heinemann, 1915
  • Mawson’s Huts : the birthplace of Australia’s Antarctic heritage. Mawson’s Huts Foundation. Allen & Unwin, 2008
"Aurora" alongside the iceshelf Queen Mary Land, February 1913
Emperor penguins in foreground
Image: Frank Hurley. The Home of the blizzard, v.1 1915
 
Explore UQ Library
 
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•