Traversing Antarctica: the Australian experience

23 March 2012 to 9 September 2012

National Archives of Australia
Queen Victoria Terrace
Parkes ACT 2600

Antarctica – more than penguins on ice.

Imagine life in a land of ice and blizzards. What motivates people to venture to a place of such extremes as Antarctica? One word: discovery. Traversing Antarctica: the Australian experience reveals how Australia's connection with the frozen continent has developed over 100 years since the 1911–14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Douglas Mawson.

A wealth of documentary material from the National Archives unveils this fascinating history.

A rare collection of original equipment and diaries from early expeditions is displayed together for the first time as well as inspiring interactive displays and imagery.

The exhibition is a joint project by the National Archives of Australia, the Australian Antarctic Division and the Western Australian Museum.

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    Steam yacht Aurora and penguins
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    Adelie penguins in blizzard
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    Proclamation ceremony
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    Adélie penguins
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    Aurora Australis in pack ice
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    Aurora over Mawson Station

Following feedback from our visitors, we have put together a small selection of publications about Australia's role in the Antarctic:

Bernadette Hince, Still no Mawson: Frank Stillwell's Antarctic Diaries 1911–1913, Australian Academy of Science, May 2012

Marcus Haward and Tom Griffiths, Australia Antarctic Treaty System: 50 years of influence, University of New South Wales Press 2011

Anna Bemrose, Mawson's Last Survivor: The story of Dr Alf Howard AM, Boolarong Press 2011

Heather Rossiter, Mawson's Forgotten Men: The 1911–1913 Antarctic Diaries of Charles Turnbull Harrisson, Murdoch Books 2011

Tom Griffiths, Slicing the Silence: voyaging to Antarctica, New South Books, 2007

Nancy Robinson Flannery, This Everlasting Silence: The love letters of Paquita Delprat and Douglas Mawson 1911–1914, Melbourne University Publishing 2006

Tim Bowden, The Silence Calling: Australians in Antarctica 1947–1997, Allen & Unwin, 1997

Fred and Eleanor Jacka (ed), Mawson's Antarctic Diaries, University of NSW, Allen & Unwin 1988

Grenfell Price, The winning of Australian Antarctica, Mawson’s BANZARE voyages 1929–1931, Angus & Robertson 1962

Sir Douglas Mawson, The Home of the Blizzard, Wakefield Press 1996 (first published 1915)

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Copyright National Archives of Australia 2012