Previously unseen footage of Sir Douglas Mawson's historic 1911 expedition to the Antarctic will be shown for the first time tomorrow at the launch of the Antarctic Midwinter Festival at Hadleys Hotel in Hobart at 11am.

Shot by photographer and filmmaker Frank Hurley who accompanied Mawson on the adventure 94 years ago, the remarkable footage held by the National Archives of Australia will undoubtedly be a Festival highlight.

Apart from a short, government-funded film on the expedition made in 1959, most of the footage has never been seen in public.

Hurley’s original rolls of film, carefully restored by the National Archives through its audio-visual preservation program, have now been edited into a 22-minute visual record of the expedition. The digital master of the film has kindly been made available to us by Film Australia.

The film includes vision of the expedition party leaving Hobart on the Aurora, shipboard life, Macquarie Island, penguins and sea lions, the party’s arrival and their exploration of the frozen continent.

The film will be available for public viewing at the National Archives of Australia office in Hobart from Saturday 18 June to Friday 24 June 2005 at 10am and 2pm.

Bookings are essential, and author Tim Bowden will be speaking after the screening on Sunday 19 June.

Hobart Director of the National Archives, Eleanor Wolf, said that during the Festival the Archives will also display a selection of material relating to the Antarctic.

‘While the Mawson film will certainly be our major drawcard, visitors can also look through original documents and photographs and perhaps even conduct some private research into the collection’, Ms Wolf said.

The Archives’ Hobart office is open weekdays between 9am and 4.30pm.