Douglas Mawson

For the ship lost at sea in 1923, see SS Douglas Mawson.

"Mawson" redirects here. For other uses, see Mawson (disambiguation).

Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA
Mawson in 1914
Born	(1882-05-05)5 May 1882 Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	14 October 1958(1958-10-14) (aged 76) Brighton, South Australia, Australia
Education	Fort Street Model School University of Sydney (B.E., 1901; B.Sc. 1905) University of Adelaide (D.Sc., 1909)
Occupation(s)	Geologist, Antarctic explorer, academic
Known for	First ascent of Mount Erebus First team to reach the South magnetic pole Sole survivor of Far Eastern Party Australasian Antarctic Expedition Mawson's Huts Mawson Plateau
Spouse(s)	Francisca Paquita Delprat (1891–1974), married 1914
Children	Patricia Jessica
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science Bigsby Medal (1919) Mueller Medal (1930) Clarke Medal (1936) Polar Medal(1909, 1934)

Mawson was born in England and was brought to Australia as an infant. He completed degrees in mining engineering and geology at the University of Sydney, after which he was appointed lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1906. From 1903 onwards he undertook significant geological exploration, including an expedition to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) in 1903, and later in the Flinders Ranges and far north-east of South Australia and over the border near Broken Hill in New South Wales. He identified and first described the mineral davidite in 1906, studied the Precambrian rocks of the Flinders and Barrier Ranges, and became an expert in the geochemistry of igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Mawson's first experience in the Antarctic came as a member of Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909), alongside his mentor Edgeworth David. They were part of the expedition's northern party, which became the first to attain the South magnetic pole and to climb Mount Erebus. After his participation in Shackleton's expedition, Mawson became the principal instigator and leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–1914). The expedition explored thousands of kilometres of previously unexplored regions, collected geological and botanical samples, and made important scientific observations. Mawson was the sole survivor of the three-man Far Eastern Party in 1912–3, which travelled across the Mertz and Ninnis Glaciers, named after his two deceased companions. Their deaths forced him to travel alone for over a month to return to the expedition's main base, which became known as Mawson's Huts.

Mawson was knighted in 1914, and during the second half of World War I worked as a non-combatant with the British and Russian militaries. He returned to the University of Adelaide in 1919 and became a full professor in 1921, contributing much to Australian geology.

He returned to the Antarctic as the leader of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (1929–1931), which led to a territorial claim in the form of the Australian Antarctic Territory. Mawson is commemorated by numerous landmarks, and from 1984 to 1996 appeared on the Australian $100 note.

Early life and education

Douglas Mawson was born on 5 May 1882^[1] to Robert Ellis Mawson and Margaret Ann Moore. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, but was under the age of two when his family emigrated to Australia and settled at Rooty Hill, now in the western suburbs of Sydney. Later he and his family moved to the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe in 1893,^[2] where they lived in a double-storey Victorian house at 28 Toxteth Road. The home was nominated for a Blue Plaque in 2021.^[3]

He first attended Plumpton Public School (later known as Plumpton Primary School) in Plumpton, an outer western suburb of Sydney,^[4][5] then Forest Lodge Public School in Glebe.^[6] For his secondary education he attended Fort Street Model School in Observatory Hill, Sydney,^[2] graduating in 1898.^[7]

He entered the University of Sydney in March 1899,^[8] aged just 16,^[9] having enrolled in a degree in mining engineering. His studies covered a number of subjects over the three year degree, obtaining first class honours in geology and mineralogy in his second year, and winning a prize in petrology.^[10] He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mining and metallurgy on 19 April 1902^[8] with second-class honours.^[11] Even before graduating, he was appointed as a junior demonstrator in chemistry, with the approval of chemistry professor Archibald Liversidge, and with geologist Edgeworth David as his referee.^[8] Both men became major influences in his geological career.^[2]

He returned to study at Sydney University in 1904,^[2][1] graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree with first-class honours in geology and mineralogy on 6 May 1905.^[11][12] By the time he graduated, he had already completed fieldwork for two papers, first in Mittagong, New South Wales, and then the New Hebrides (Vanuatu).^[13]

In 1909, Mawson was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree at the University of Adelaide, for his thesis about the geology of the Barrier Ranges near Broken Hill, New South Wales.^[2]

Career

Early work and academic career

In 1903 Mawson published a geological paper on Mittagong, New South Wales, with fellow science student and friend Thomas Griffith Taylor, based on joint field trips done over the course of around 18 months, and building on data created by the Geological Survey of New South Wales. Their study focused on igneous rocks, in particular their chemical composition.^[13] The paper was read at the Royal Society of New South Wales in October 1903 by Edgeworth David.^[14][15]

Mawson's first major independent geological work occurred when he was appointed geologist by Edgeworth David to an expedition to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) from April to September 1903. He travelled there with medical student W. T. Quaife, who acted as the expedition's biologist,^[a] aboard the Ysabel, under the auspices of the British Deputy Commissioner of the New Hebrides, Captain Ernest Rason.^[b] HMS Archer was also used on the trip. The South Australian Museum holds many of Mawson's original field notes and some photographs from this trip, as well as a bibliography compiled by Mawson before setting out.^[10] The first results of the expedition were presented on 11 January 1904 at a meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in Dunedin on Mawson's behalf by David, who was then president of the AAAS.^[10] Mawson's more detailed report, "The Geology of the New Hebrides", published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in December 1905,^[18][10] was one of the first major geological works of Melanesia.^[15] The report included geological maps of the islands of Efate and Santo.^[10]

In 1904, Mawson and T. H. Laby were the first to identify radium-bearing ore in Australia. Mawson built an electroscope based on the design of C. T. R. Wilson in the university engineering laboratory to test samples from their field trips. Professor Edgeworth David made the formal presentation of the paper to the Royal Society of New South Wales on 5 October 1904 on the men's behalf.^{[8][19][20][21]}

In 1905 Mawson became a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide.^[2] During this time, thanks to the free rail pass given to him by the government for the purpose of geological research, he travelled by train around the state of South Australia (SA). By 1907, he had been to Kangaroo Island, the Flinders Ranges, to the southern tips of the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas, as well as an area between the small town in the far east of SA, Olary and Broken Hill, over the border in New South Wales. He explored the Olary-Broken Hill area on horseback and by motorbike. He also accompanied groups of students on field trips, and had to plan transport and provisions for hot days and some very cold nights in the desert. He wrote extensive diaries detailing his trips in the semi-arid areas.^[22]

In March 1906, he wrote his first report on the geology of South Australia, and specifically of the Flinders Ranges, which he later revisited many times.^[23] The short handwritten report was submitted to the state government in March 1906, based on his first visit to the Flinders Ranges with Walter Howchin and Thomas Griffith Taylor in February 1906.^[23] It was a titled "Notes on the Geological Features of the Beltana District", and was not published until 2007.^[c] It described the geology of the area around Beltana, and the abandoned Ajax Copper Mine (now the heritage-listed and world-famous Ajax Mine Fossil Reef),^[23] located near Puttapa, a pastoral lease around 10 mi (16 km) north of Beltana.^[24] Mawson's report is a technical description of the mine and its activity, and also discusses the geology of the copper mineralisation and its relationship with the limestone bearing the Archaeocyatha (marine sponge) fossils (about which Taylor later wrote a major monograph). The report shows his abiding interest in the Cambrian right from the beginning of his career. He later returned to do major research on the Cambrian in the Flinders, building on Howchin's work, publishing important papers in the 1930s.^[23][25]

Also in 1906, while in Adelaide, he published a substantial and detailed study focused on the syenites of the Bowral Quarries in New South Wales. This was a follow-up to his earlier work with Taylor at Mittagong (1903).^[13]

In 1906 he also identified and first described the mineral davidite, which contains titanium and uranium, at Radium Hill, South Australia.^[8][2] He was always interested in commercial applications of geology.^[22]

The focus of Mawson's early geological work was the Precambrian rocks of the Barrier Ranges, which run from the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia northwards through Broken Hill. There are several types of rock along the ranges, with varying degrees of mineralisation. He identified two groups: an older Archaean ("Willyama") Series, and a newer, Proterozoic ("Torrowangee") Series. His work in this area was reported in his 1909 Doctor of Science thesis at the University of Adelaide, and he subsequently published "Geological investigations in the Broken Hill area",^[2] in 1912, co-authored by English geologist Walter Howchin.^[26]

His work on the glacial sediments of the Precambrian Age in SA and around Broken Hill led him to want to investigate the glaciers of Antarctica, and his later trips there, studying how they move and deposit sediment increased his understanding of how the rocks formed in SA millions of years earlier.^[22]

WWI and later career

Mawson in 1926

Mawson served in a scientific capacity from May 1916 in the British Ministry of Munitions, first as embarkation officer for shipments of explosives and poison gas from Britain to Russia. He then worked for the Russian Military Commission, reporting on British production of high explosives with the aim of increasing Russian production. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, he was transferred to the Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement, as a major.^[2]

Returning to the University of Adelaide in 1919,^[1] after the retirement of Howchin in 1920,^[25] Mawson was promoted to the professorship of geology and mineralogy in 1921, a position held until his retirement in 1952.^[1] Along with Cecil Madigan and their students, Mawson made significant contribution to the knowledge about the Cambrian.^[25] During these 30 years, much of his research was focused on the "Adelaide System" of Precambrian rocks, especially in the northern Flinders Ranges. He showed that glacial beds extended for 930 mi (1,500 km), and also that glacial conditions existed on and off throughout the Proterozoic period. During this time he did a lot of field work with students, sometimes using horse and cart or camels as transport.^[2] In August 1924, Mawson undertook fieldwork as part of his teaching and research programme in the northern Flinders Ranges, which led the discovery of an extensive Cambrian outcrop near Mt McKinlay in the Gammon Ranges.^[25]

His geological excursions and research into the Cambrian were interrupted by work and travel relating to another polar expedition, BANZARE, which took place from 1929 to 1931. After completing the work relating to BANZARE, Mawson once again took up and expanded his research into the Cambrian in the late 1930s, with some assistance from his students.^[25] He published studies in 1937,^[d] 1938, and 1939, and a sketch map in 1942. In his studies, he included measured sections of parts of the Flinders Ranges, showing the Cambrian layers of rock.^[25]

He was also interested in the geochemistry of igneous and metamorphic rocks, the geological significance of algae, and other topics. His reputation meant that specialists around the world were happy to provide assistance in his descriptions of rocks and fossils which he had collected both in Australia and Antarctica.^[2]

Antarctic expeditions

Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909)

Mackay, David, and Mawson raise the flag at the South magnetic pole on 16 January 1909.

Main article: Nimrod Expedition

While still undertaking his doctorate,^[9] Mawson joined Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909; also known as the Third British Antarctic Expedition) to the Antarctic, as surveyor, cartographer, and magnetician.^[1] He was keen to learn more about glaciation and its effect on rocks, because his earlier studies in South Australia had looked at the largest Precambrian glacial deposits yet recorded anywhere.^[2] Originally intending to stay only for the duration of the ship's presence in the first summer, instead both he and his mentor, Edgeworth David, stayed an extra year. In doing so they became, in the company of Alistair Mackay, the first to climb the summit of Mount Erebus (the second-highest volcanic peak in Antarctica, at 3,794 m (12,448 ft)^[9]) and to trek to the South magnetic pole, which at that time was over land.^[2] On the return journy to Nimrod, Mawson fell into a crevasse and had to be rescued.^[2]

During their stay, they also wrote, illustrated and printed the book Aurora Australis. Mawson contributed with the science fiction short story "Bathybia".^[28][29]

Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–1913)

Mawson resting at the side of his sledge, Adélie Land, Antarctica, 1912

Mawson's sledge

Main article: Australasian Antarctic Expedition

Mawson turned down an invitation to join Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1910, as Scott showed no interest in Mawson doing scientific research on the expedition.^[30] Instead, Australian geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor went with Scott. Mawson chose to lead his own expedition, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE),^[2][31] to George V Land and Adélie 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 a visit to the South magnetic pole. Mawson raised the necessary funds in a year, from British and Australian Governments, and from commercial backers interested in mining and whaling.^[32][30] Over nearly three years, the group mapped the Antarctic coastline, explored other nearby locations such as the subantarctic Macquarie Island, as well as voyaging inland for over 500 km (310 mi), collecting geological and scientific data.^[9]

The expedition used the ship SY Aurora commanded by Captain John King Davis, who led an extensive programme of marine science from the ship. It departed from Hobart on 2 December 1911, landed at Cape Denison (named after Hugh Denison, a major backer of the expedition) on Commonwealth Bay on 8 January 1912, and established the Main Base. A second camp was located to the west on the ice shelf in Queen Mary Land.^[2] Cape Denison proved to be unrelentingly windy; the average wind speed for the entire year was about 50 mph (80 km/h), with some winds approaching 200 mph (320 km/h). They built a hut on the rocky cape and wintered through nearly constant blizzards. Mawson wanted to do aerial exploration and brought the first aeroplane to Antarctica. The aircraft, a Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane,^[33] was to be flown by Francis Howard Bickerton. When it was damaged in Australia shortly before the expedition departed, plans were changed so it was to be used only as a tractor on skis. However, the engine did not operate well in the cold, and it was removed and returned to Vickers in England. The aircraft fuselage itself was abandoned. On 1 January 2009, fragments of it were rediscovered by the Mawson's Huts Foundation, which works on restoring and conserving the original huts.^[34]

Mawson's exploration program was carried out by five parties from the Main Base and two from the Western Base. Mawson himself was part of a three-man sledging team, the Far Eastern Party, with Xavier Mertz and Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis, who headed east on 10 November 1912, to survey George V Land. After five weeks of excellent progress mapping the coastline and collecting geological samples, the party was crossing the Ninnis Glacier 480 km (300 mi) east of the main base. Mertz was skiing and Mawson was on his sled with his weight dispersed, but Ninnis was jogging beside the second sled. Ninnis fell through a crevasse, and his body weight is likely to have breached the snow bridge covering it. The six best dogs, most of the party's rations, their tent, and other essential supplies disappeared into the massive crevasse. Mertz and Mawson spotted one dead and one injured dog on a ledge 165 feet (50 m) below them, but Ninnis was never seen again.^[35][2][36] In his book published after the expedition The Home of the Blizzard (1915), Mawson talked of "Herculean gusts" on 24 May 1912, which he learned afterwards "approached two hundred miles per hour".^[37]: 94 These katabatic winds can reach around 300 km/h (190 mph), and led Mawson to dub Cape Denison "the windiest place on Earth".^[38][39]

After a brief service, Mawson and Mertz turned back immediately. They had one week's provisions for two men and no dog food but plenty of fuel and a Primus stove. They sledged for 27 hours continuously to obtain a spare tent cover they had left behind, for which they improvised a frame from skis and a theodolite. Their lack of provisions forced them to use their remaining sled dogs to feed the other dogs and themselves:^[40]

Their meat was tough, stringy and without a vestige of fat. For a change we sometimes chopped it up finely, mixed it with a little pemmican, and brought all to the boil in a large pot of water. We were exceedingly hungry, but there was nothing to satisfy our appetites. Only a few ounces were used of the stock of ordinary food, to which was added a portion of dog's meat, never large, for each animal yielded so very little, and the major part was fed to the surviving dogs. They crunched the bones and ate the skin, until nothing remained.

— Mawson, Chapter XIII. "Toil and Tribulation" p. 170, Home of the Blizzard (1914)

There was a quick deterioration in the men's physical condition during this journey. Both men suffered dizziness; nausea; abdominal pain; irrationality; mucosal fissuring; skin, hair, and nail loss; and the yellowing of eyes and skin. Later Mawson noticed a dramatic change in his travelling companion. Mertz seemed to lose the will to move and wished only to remain in his sleeping bag. He began to deteriorate rapidly with diarrhoea and madness. On one occasion Mertz refused to believe he was suffering from frostbite and bit off the tip of his own little finger. This was soon followed by violent raging—Mawson had to sit on his companion's chest and hold down his arms to prevent him from damaging their tent. Mertz suffered further seizures before falling into a coma and dying on 8 January 1913.^[41] It was unknown at the time that high levels of vitamin A are toxic to humans, causing liver damage, and that husky liver contains extremely high levels of Vitamin A.^[42] With six dogs between them (with a liver on average weighing one kilogram or 2.2 pounds), it is thought that the pair ingested enough liver to cause the toxicity syndrome hypervitaminosis A, which can be fatal.^[43]

Mawson continued the final 160 kilometres (99 mi) alone and slowly, back to Main Base.^[30] When Mawson finally made it back to Cape Denison, the ship Aurora had left only a few hours before. It was recalled by wireless communication, only to have bad weather thwart the rescue effort. Mawson and six men who had remained behind to look for him wintered a second year until December 1913. In Mawson's book Home of the Blizzard, he describes his experiences.^[44][15] 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. They had covered around 4,000 mi (6,400 km).^[2]

Mawson in 1914

Mawson edited the 22 volumes of the A.A.E. Scientific Reports, which were finally published in 1947.^[2]

The expedition was the subject of American author David Roberts' 2013 book Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration.^[45][46]

BANZARE (1929–31)

Main article: British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition

With the support of both the Australian National Research Council and the Australian Government, resulting from the Imperial Conference 1926, Mawson led the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) of 1929-30 and 1930–31.^[2] This expedition used the ship Discovery and did not establish land bases, instead focusing on data relating to geology, magnetism, zoology, and botany.^[9] BANZARE resulted in the formation of the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1936, by the enactment of the Australian Antarctic Territory Acceptance Act 1933.^[2]

The expedition also carried out extensive work in marine science, with the examination and analysis of specimens carried out over the following 50 years by specialists all over the world, culminating in the 13-volume B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. Scientific Reports,^[2] with the last only published in 1975. The narrative of the BANZARE was written by Archibald Grenfell Price, working from Mawson's papers, and was published commercially by Angus & Robertson as The winning of Australian Antarctica; Mawson's B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. voyages, 1929-31 in 1962.^[47]

Other roles and activities

Mawson was Honorary Curator of Minerals for the South Australian Museum from 1907 to 1958, and also chair of the South Australian Museum Board of Governors from 1951 to 1958.^[48]

On 21 August 1919, Mawson was a founding member, representing the science of geography, of the Australasian Research Council, based in Sydney. The council was formalised by the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and renamed the Australian National Research Council (ANRC) in July 1921, and eventually dissolved in 1955,^[1][49] its functions taken over by the Australian Academy of Science.^[49] He was a petitioner for the academy in 1953, a founding fellow 1954–1958, and council member from 1954.^[1]

He was a member of the council, and later president of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia^[50] from 1924 to 1925.^[1]

In 1920 he was elected president of Section E (Geology) the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. From 1932 to 1937 he was president of the association, by then renamed Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS).^[1]

In 1924-1925 and again in 1945 Mawson was president of the Royal Society of South Australia.^[1]

In 1939 be became a foreign member of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography.^[1]

After World War II ended in 1945, Mawson promoted the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions, and was a member of the Australian Antarctic Executive Planning Committee until his death.^[2]

His other interests included conservation, farming, and forestry.^[2] His wife wrote that he was happiest planting trees. Along with artist Hans Heysen, he was in 1920 a founding member of the South Australian Forest League, which was dedicated to protecting forests and valuable trees, and encouraging the planting of native trees.^[22] Mawson owned and worked a 1,200-acre (490 ha) farm called "Harewood" at Meadows, and was a founding director of S.A. Hardwoods Pty Ltd. He established a mill near Kuitpo Forest.^[51][2] A painting by artist Sam Leach of the farm, based on his childhood memories and assisted by AI, was a finalist in the Wynne Prize in 2022.^[52]

He also advocated for decimalisation and supported strict regulation of the whaling industry.^[2]

Honours

Caricature by Sir David Low

In 1914, Mawson was knighted.^[53][2][1]

He was made a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)^[53] in 1923,^[2] and was a foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.^[2] He was made a life fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1913.^[1]

Other recognition and awards included:

• 1908: Antarctic Medal of the Royal Geographical Society^[1]
• 1909: Polar Medal (Silver), for the Nimrod expedition^[1]
• 1914: Polar Medal (Silver), for his Australian Expedition^[1]
• 1915: Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society^[54]
• 1915: Helen Culver Gold Medal of the Chicago Geographical Society^[1]
• 1915: Silver Wolf Award of the Scouts Association^[1]
• 1916: David Livingstone Centenary Medal of the American Geographical Society^[55][1]
• 1919: Bigsby Medal of the Geological Society of London^[1]
• 1920: Order of the British Empire (OBE)^[1]
• 1927: Gold Medal for Oceanographical Research, Société de Géographie in Paris^[1]
• 1928: Gustav Nachtigal Medal, Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, Germany^[1][2]
• 1930: Mueller Medal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)^[56]
• 1931: Verco Medal of the Royal Society of South Australia^[1]
• 1931: Polar Medal (Bronze)^[1]
• 1935: King George V Silver Jubilee Medal^[1]
• 1936: Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales^[2][1]
• 1937: King George VI Coronation Medal^[1]
• 1950: John Lewis Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society of South Australia^[1]
• 1950: Gold Medal, Royal Society of South Australia^[1]
• 1952: Doctor of Science (DSc) honoris causa, University of Sydney^[1][11]
• 1953: Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal^[1]
• Two Italian decorations^[2]

Personal life

Mawson married Francisca Adriana (Paquita) Delprat (1891–1974^[57]) on 31 March 1914 at Holy Trinity Church of England, Balaclava, Victoria.^[2] She was the daughter of the metallurgist and general manager of BHP, G. D. Delprat, whom Mawson had met during his time in Broken Hill.^[15] They had met when she was 17, not long after Mawson's return from the Nimrod Expedition in 1909. They got engaged before Mawson left for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition in 1911.^[57]

Their first daughter, Patricia Marietje Thomas,^[2] later a notable parasitologist,^[58] was born in 1915, and stayed in Australia when her mother travelled to England to assist Mawson in his wartime role with the Ministry of Munitions. Their second child, Jessica Paquita "Quita" Mawson (1917–2004; married name McEwin), who became a bacteriologist,^[59] was born in London.^[57]

Paquita passed the senior school public examination honours from Tormore House School in North Adelaide in 1908, excelling in English literature.^[60] Returning to Adelaide after the war, she worked for the Mothers' and Babies' Health Association, for which she was president for nine years, and the Australian Red Cross Society. Like her husband, she was prominent in Adelaide's social and cultural life, and wrote two books: A Vision of Steel, a biography of her father G. D. Delprat published in 1958, and Mawson of the Antarctic, about her husband, published in 1964. She too was awarded an OBE, and after Mawson's knighthood, became Lady Francisca Adriana Mawson. A portrait of her painted by Ingrid Erns (born c.1919) in the late 1940s was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery by the Mawson family in 2010.^[57] A typescript of A Vision of Steel is held by the National Library in Canberra.^[61]

During his time based in England in 1916, Mawson established a close personal relationship with Kathleen Scott, the widow of polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott, although there is no evidence of the two having conducted an affair.^[62][63]

Later life and death

Sir Douglas Mawson's grave at St Jude's, at Brighton, South Australia

• Main plaque on the granite boulder marking the grave of
• Sir Douglas Mawson

Plaque acknowledging gift of the boulder from Arkaroola marking Mawson's grave, from the Sprigg family

Upon his retirement from teaching in 1952 he was made an emeritus professor of the University of Adelaide.^[2] The university published Sir Douglas Mawson Anniversary Volume: Contributions to geology in honour of Sir Douglas Mawson's 70th birthday anniversary.^[64]

On 12 March 1958, Mawson paid a visit to the Soviet Antarctic ship Cooperatzia (aka Cooperatsiya and Kooperatsiya^[65][66]), and spent several hours talking to Soviet scientific leader Alexey Tryoshnikov. The ship's visit was an occasion for helping to develop further friendly relations between Australian and Soviet scientists, and the American scientist G. D. Cartwright was also on board.^[67]

He died at his Brighton home in South Australia on 14 October 1958 from a cerebral haemorrhage, aged 76.^[2] Prime Minister Robert Menzies said of him: Sir Douglas Mawson was one of the very great men of my lifetime. He had courage, remarkable ability, great vision and great tenacity. Future generations of Australians will look back on his life as a source of inspiration".^[68]

Mawson was honoured with a Commonwealth state funeral^[30] on 17 October at St Jude's Church in Brighton, South Australia, where he was also interred.^[69] The Governor-General Sir William Slim, was not able to attend, but was represented at the funeral by Brigadier G. E. H. Bleby.^[70]

A memorial service was also held at St Peter's Cathedral in Adelaide, arranged by the University of Adelaide.^[2]

On 31 October 1958, a tribute to his memory was paid by members of the Soviet Geographical Society at a special meeting. Evgeny Suzyumov,^[e] a member of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition, said that Mawson had developed friendships with Soviet Antarctic explorers in his later years.^[73]

Ongoing work on BANZARE papers

At the time of his death he had still not completed editorial work on all the papers resulting from the BANZARE. He had been assisted in this work by his eldest daughter, Patricia Thomas, and upon his death, the Science and Industry Endowment Fund provided a £300 grant to assist in completing the work. Thomas completed the work in 1975.^[74]

Legacy

The Mawson Laboratories at the University of Adelaide

General

Mawson's early geological studies were highly regarded. Frederick Chapman, then palaeontologist at the National Museum of Victoria and later the Commonwealth government official palaeontologist, based two of his own studies on Mawson's New Hebridean study (1905 & 1907). A paper co-authored by Chapman and Mawson was published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London in 1906 – significant recognition for one so early in his career.^[13] Two of his studies (both 1949), along with a 1947 study by Reg Sprigg as well as more recent studies, are cited in support of the application to make seven geographically separate areas in the Flinders Ranges a World Heritage Site. The application was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre for consideration in 2021, and as of August 2025^[update] remain on the "tentative" list.^[75]

His former mentor Edgeworth David said of Mawson in a public tribute: "Mawson was the real leader who was the soul of our expedition to the Magnetic Pole. We really have in him an Australian Nansen, of infinite resource, splendid physique, astonishing indifference to frost".^[2]

J. Gordon Hayes wrote in his book The conquest of the south pole; Antarctic exploration, 1906–1931 (1928): "Sir Douglas Mawson's Expedition, judged by the magnitude both of its scale and of its achievements, was the greatest and most consummate expedition that ever sailed for Antarctica".^[2][76]

According to ADB biographer F. J. Jacka: "He did not propound new, fundamental theories but he extended and developed geological thinking and knowledge over a wide range of topics and locations, and through his leadership created opportunities for the realization of major developments in many disciplines. His lectures about Antarctica were widely acclaimed around the world".^[2]

The geology building on the main University of Adelaide campus was named Mawson Laboratories on the occasion of his retirement in 1952.^[2] In 1959, the Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research was established at the university.^[2]

His image appeared on several postage stamps of the Australian Antarctic Territory: 5 pence (1961),^[77] 5 pence (1961), 27 cents and 75 cents (1982),^[78] 10 cents (2011),^[79] 45 cents (1999).^[80]

In 1979 the Australian Academy of Science established the Mawson Lecture.^[2]

The centenary of Mawson's birth was celebrated in 1982, which included the Fourth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Science being held at the University of Adelaide, with the proceedings dedicated to him.^[2]

In 1983 the Douglas Mawson chair of geology was established at the University of Adelaide.^[2]

His image appeared from 1984 to 1996 on the Australian paper one hundred-dollar note,^[81][82] and in 2012 on a $1 coin issued within the "Inspirational Australians" series.^[83]

One of Mawson's students at the University of Adelaide was Reg Sprigg, who discovered Precambrian fossils when assessing an old mine site in the Ediacara Hills in 1946. His discovery led to other geologists defining a new geological period, the Ediacaran, for the first time in over 100 years,^[22][84] which was officially ratified by the IUGS in 2004.^[85]

In 2007, adventurer Tim Jarvis re-enacted Mawson's expedition to Antarctica,^[63] simulating the conditions in the 1912 trek. They followed the same route and tried to do everything done by Mawson's expedition, although did not eat any dogs. Jarvis said afterwards that it gave him a new-found respect for Mawson.^[86]

In 2011, Ranulph Fiennes included Mawson in his book My Heroes: Extraordinary Courage, Exceptional People.^[87]

In 2013, the "Australian Mawson Centenary Expedition", led by Chris Turney and Chris Fogwill, undertook a voyage to investigate Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic oceanography, climate and biology. Their ship, the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, became trapped in ice.^[88] The expedition later visited Mawson's huts at Cape Denison on Commonwealth Bay.^[89]

Reviewing David Roberts' 2013 book Alone on the Ice in The Observer, Paul Harris called Mawson "the unsung hero of Antarctica". In the book, Roberts suggests that Mawson was little known for two reasons: firstly that the British press of the time focused on British "imperial heroes" such as Scott; and secondly that Mawson had opted for carrying out scientific expeditions rather than the "exciting race to the south pole that had captured the public imagination".^[46]

In 2015, the Australian Museum in Sydney developed an exhibition called Trailblazers: Australia's 50 Greatest Explorers, which included Mawson.^[9]

Mawson Analytical Spectrometry Services (MASS) are facilities offered by the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology at the University of Adelaide to researchers and commercial partners. The service provides thermal ionisation mass spectrometry, Stable Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry, and Organic Molecular Analysis and Characterisation.^[90]

At Oxley College (founded in 1982^[91]) in Burradoo, New South Wales, one of the six houses is called Mawson,^[92] as is at Clarence High School in Hobart, Tasmania,^[93] Forest Lodge Public School,^[6] and Fort Street High School, both in Sydney, where he was educated.^[7]

Soon after news of the disastrous Far Eastern expedition broke, Mawson's decision to put such a large amount of their essential provisions on one sledge was criticised. Mark Pharoah, researcher and curator of the Mawson Collection at the South Australian Museum, said that since the release of his journals and other expedition records, historians have questioned his navigational and leadership abilities, and criticised his risk-taking.^[32] J. Gordon Hayes was critical of the three men not using skis.^[2]

Genera and species

In 1937 the fish species Dissostichus mawsoni (Antarctic toothfish) was named by English ichthyologist John Roxborough Norman in honour of Mawson, as the 1911-1913 Australasian Antarctic Expedition obtained the species' type specimen.^[94]

In 1948, Carroll William Dodge published a genus of fungi within the family Lichinaceae, named Mawsonia in his honour.^[95]

In 1966, the fossil genus Mawsonites, dated to the Ediacaran, was named after Mawson, and its type species, Mawsonites spriggi, after his student Reg Sprigg, by Martin Glaessner and Mary Wade.^[96][97][98]

Collections

The Australian Polar Collection of Antarctic exploration artefacts is on permanent display at the South Australian Museum. Previously known as the Mawson Gallery, in 2018 the gallery underwent development to expand the displays of two other South Australian explorers, John Riddoch Rymill and George Hubert Wilkins.^[99] The Mawson collection is the largest of the three collections, containing over 100,000 items. These were acquired in two lots: one came from the Australian Museum in Sydney, while a larger collection of items was donated by the University of Adelaide in 2000. The collection includes Mawson's balaclava, as illustrated on the hundred-dollar note.^[48]

The Australian Museum has a collection of 2000 Antarctic rock and mineral specimens collected on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, named the Sir Douglas Mawson Collection.^[100]

The National Library of Australia in Canberra holds a collection of papers relating to the Mawson family, collected by Gareth Thomas and presented to the library in 2010. Most of the papers consist of personal correspondence of Paquita Mawson principally with her daughter Patricia, but also includes letters to her daughter Jessica and other members of her extended family, some written from the Netherlands in Dutch. There are a few letters written by Douglas Mawson to Patricia between 1925 and 1931.^[61]

The Sir Douglas Mawson Collection at the National Museum Australia, contains four items relating to BANZARE in 1931, including three proclamations relating to claiming land in Antarctica, and a food canister.^[101]

Places and landmarks

On 21 October 1952, Mawson Peak on Heard Island, Antarctica, was officially named in honour of Mawson.^[102]

Mawson Station in Antarctica was officially named after Mawson on 13 February 1954. Phillip Law, inaugural director of the Australian Antarctic Division, selected the location near Horseshoe Harbour as Australia's first overwintering station on the Antarctic continent, and conducting a flag-raising and official naming ceremony on that date. Mawson is the oldest station established south of the Antarctic Circle.^[103] The Mawson Coast was also named after him.^[2]

In 1959, a mountain peak in Tasmania was gazetted as Mount Mawson, named after Mawson.^{[f][104][105]} It lies within the Mount Field National Park.^[106]

Mawson is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The suburb was gazetted in 1966 and is named after him. The theme for street names in this area is Antarctic exploration.^[107]

In 1969 the District of Mawson, an electoral district of South Australia, was created and named in honour of Mawson.^[108]

Mawson Plateau, situated in what is now the Arkaroola Protection Area in the Northern Flinders Ranges, was originally known as the Freeling Heights lower granite plateau. It was named after Mawson some time before 1984.^{[109][110][111]} Mawson Valley is also in Arkaroola, and Mawson was responsible for naming a rocky granite outcrop in the valley "Sitting Bull"^[112][98] in 1945.^[113]

Minor planet 4456 Mawson was named in his honour after its discovery on 27 July 1989 by R. H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales.^[114] as is Dorsa Mawson, a wrinkle ridge on the Moon.^[115]

The Mawson Trail, a cycling and walking trail created in the 1990s, stretching from the Adelaide Hills to the Flinders Ranges, was named after Mawson.^[116]

The Mawson's Huts Foundation, based in Sydney, was established in 1996 as a charity. It works on conserving Mawson's Huts at Cape Denison, has funded and organised 14 major expeditions there, and in 2013, it opened the Mawson's Huts Replica Museum in Hobart.^[117] The museum is located on the waterfront, near the wharf used by SY Aurora.^[118]

The suburb Mawson Lakes, a northern suburb of Adelaide, was founded in the late 1990s and named in his honour,^[119] and one of the two man-made lakes in the suburb is called the Sir Douglas Mawson Lake.^[120] A campus of the University of South Australia in the suburb is known as the Mawson Lakes campus.^[121]

The high street in Meadows, South Australia, the town near his farm, Harewood, is named after him.^[122]

In art and popular culture

Bust of Mawson on North Terrace, Adelaide, in front of the University of Adelaide, created by John Dowie in 1982

A portrait of Mawson painted by in 1933 by Henry James Haley was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra by the Mawson family in 2010.^[123] Other portraits of him were painted by W. Seppelt (1922); Jack Carington Smith (1955); and Ivor Hele (1956), which are (or were) held in the University of Adelaide. Another by Hele, created in 1959, is held by the Royal Geographical Society in London. Adelaide sculptor John Dowie created two bronze busts of Mawson in 1982, one of which is on North Terrace, Adelaide, and another at Mawson Station in Antarctica.^{[2][124][125]} Another bronze bust, created by Jean Perrier in 1980, is held in Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand.^[2]

In 1991, Irish folk musician Andy Irvine recorded the song "Douglas Mawson" for his album Rude Awakening. The song recounts the events of the Far Eastern Party of the Antarctic expedition.^[126]

In 2008, ABC Television screened a feature-length documentary film, titled Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica, about Tim Jarvis's recreation of Mawson's journey. Jarvis also released a book of the same name that year.^[86] The film is available via the National Film and Sound Archive website^[127] and the library streaming service Kanopy.^[128]

David Roberts' 2013 account of Mawson's AAE expedition, Alone on the Ice,^[129] and the deadly effect of dog liver, are referenced in the plot of S3 E3 of British television series New Tricks in 2014, where it is used to commit the almost-perfect murder.^[130][131]

In December 2013, the first opera to be based on Mawson's 1911–1914 expedition to Antarctica, The Call of Aurora (by Tasmanian composer Joe Bugden)^[132] was performed at the Peacock Theatre in the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart.^[133] The opera was again performed at the Peacock in August 2022.^[134]

In 2019, Australian Dance Theatre presented the premiere of South by artistic director Garry Stewart in Adelaide. The dance work reflected upon the treacherous journey undertaken by Mawson and his team in the summer of 1912–1913. Stewart won Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for South in 2019 at the Australian Dance Awards.^[135] The work also toured regional South Australia.^[136][137] The work was intended to convey a message about the climate change crisis.^[137][135]

Footnotes

1. The two men continued to keep in touch, and Mawson later asked Quaife to join the 1911-14 AAE expedition, but Quaife declined, saying that he was ill-qualified to act as biologist for such a trip.^[10]
2. AKA British resident commissioner, 1902-1907^[16][17]
3. The report is held in State Records of South Australia.
4. The Most Northerly Occurrence of Fossiliferous Cambrian Strata in South Australia.", read at the meeting of the Royal Society of South Australia in Adelaide on 14 October 1937.^[27]
5. Misspelt as "Evengi Suzyumov" in the Canberra Times article; variously transliterated in Russian press as Evgeny Suzyumov, Yevgeny Suzyumov, and Eugene Matveyevich Suzyumov (1908–1998).^[71][72]
6. Verified by email from a representative of Registrar of Place Names, Land Tasmania, Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania, 3 July 2025.