Sir Douglas Mawson (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. He is known for being a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton (with whom he undertook the Nimrod Expedition in 1907–1909). However most of his geological work was undertaken in South Australia, in particular the Precambrian rocks of the Flinders Ranges.
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 was interested in the commercial applications of geology, in particular the radioactive minerals being used in medical applications in the early 1900s. He identified and first described the mineral davidite in 1906, and later became an expert in the geochemistry of Igneous rock and . Much of his later work was focused on the Precambrian rocks Adelaide Superbasin (which included the Flinders and Barrier Ranges), where there are significant fossil beds showing the beginnings of animal life on Earth.
Mawson's first experience in the Antarctic came as a member of Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909), alongside his geologist lecturer and mentor Edgeworth David. They were part of a group which became the first to climb Mount Erebus in March 1908. Mawson, David, and Alistair Mackay formed the expedition's northern party, which later, setting off in October 1908, became the first people to attain the South magnetic pole. 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 Glacier and , 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's account of the expedition was published in 1915 as The Home of the Blizzard.
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 (aka BANZARE, 1929–1931), which led to a territorial claim in the form of the Australian Antarctic Territory. The two long summer voyages were also noteworthy for the major Oceanography as well as terrestrial collections.
Mawson is commemorated by numerous landmarks, and from 1984 to 1996 appeared on the Australian $100 note.
In 1893 the family moved to the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe, where they lived in a double-storey Victorian house at 28 Toxteth Road. The home was nominated for a Blue Plaque in 2021. Douglas first attended Plumpton Public School (then called Woodstock, and later known as Plumpton Primary School) in Plumpton, an outer western suburb of Sydney, along with his brother William. They both attended Forest Lodge Superior Public School in Glebe, and then Fort Street Model School in Observatory Hill, Sydney, both graduating in 1898, despite the age difference. It was at Fort Street that Mawson developed his interest in geology.
He entered the University of Sydney in March 1899, aged just 16, the same year as his brother. Douglas 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. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mining and metallurgy on 19 April 1902 with second-class honours. 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. Both men became major influences in his geological career.
He returned to study at Sydney University in 1904, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree with first-class honours in geology and mineralogy on 6 May 1905. 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).
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, in the Olary area in South Australia and over the border in New South Wales.
In 1904, Mawson and chemist/physicist T. H. Laby were the first to identify radium-bearing ore in Australia, in samples of monazite collected from the Pilbara in Western Australia. They also examined other samples collected from across New South Wales, including the Barrier Ranges, not far from Olary, South Australia, where uranium was identified a couple of years later. Mawson built an electroscope based on the design of C. T. R. Wilson in Sydney University engineering laboratory to test samples from their field trips. Professor Edgeworth David made the formal presentation of their paper describing their findings to the Royal Society of New South Wales on 5 October 1904 on the men's behalf.Mawson, Douglas; and Laby, Thomas, "Preliminary observations on radio-activity and the occurrence of radium in Australian minerals", Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 38 (1904), 382-9Pring, Allan, and Brugger, Joël, "Mawson and the Radium and Uranium Mineralisation at Mount Painter, Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia", Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin, 6 (2013), 86-9.Urwin, Jessica, " The radioactive Dr Mawson: Douglas Mawson and the quest for Australia's radium riches, 1904-58", Australian Historical Studies, 53 (1) (2022), 26-42. .
In 1905 Mawson became a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide. 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 Peninsula and , 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, which have been transcribed by volunteers at the South Australian Museum. In 1906, Government Geologist H. Y. L. Brown concluded that Mawson was undertaking commercial activities in conjunction with his academic activities at Elder's Rock, and withdrew his rail pass for a while.
Mawson was always interested in commercial applications of geology.Cooper, B. J. (2009). " Bragg, Mawson and Brown, and the Early Uranium Discoveries in South Australia." Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 133(2), 199–218. (Abstract available; full article may be purchased.) After the discovery of uranium materials at near Olary, a "uranium rush" followed, in order to extract the mineral for commercial applications, at that time. Commercial interest in uranium rose after Marie Curie's research and the application of radioactivity in medicine. Mawson exhibited a collection of radioactive minerals, including carnotite from Olary, at a meeting of the Royal Society of South Australia on 7 August 1906. On 4 September of that year, Mawson identified and first described the mineral davidite, which contains titanium and uranium, at the Olary site, which he named Radium Hill. The site was developed by the Radium Hill Company, but closed in 1914 with the start of World War I. Mawson maintained an interest in Radium Hill throughout his life, in particular davidite. It was the first major find of radioactive ore in Australia.
After pastoralist and prospector W. B. Greenwood sent rocks that he had found near Mount Painter, in the northern Flinders Ranges, in October/November 1910 for analysis, Mawson identified the mineral torbernite, a secondary mineral that occurs in uranium-bearing rocks. Greenwood had previously sent samples to the government in 1899, a year after radium had been discovered by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie in France. However, government geologist Henry Y. L. Brown was away on leave when the specimens arrived, and they subsequently went missing. After Greenwood sent more samples in 1910, Brown was dismissive of their value, but Mawson, having recently visited Marie Curie in Paris, and been urged to look for radium, thought the samples were worth analysis. He used a gold-leaf electroscope given to him by Curie for the purpose (one of two she had made). Mawson visited the area and wrote a report which was published in newspapers in late November 1910. His diary of his trip to Mount Painter and Mount Gee dated October 1910 shows that his expedition members included the "well-known prospector still in the Govt Service" Harry Fabian, who met him at Mt Serle with camels; W. B. Greenwood; his son Gordon Arthur "Smiler" Greenwood; and (for at least some of the trip) H. Y. L. Brown. The group travelled to Mt Painter, and visited a number of sites, including the Mount Rose Mine, Mueller Hill, Yankaninna, and the Wheal Turner Mine. In his overview written on the back of the diary, Mawson notes a number of different types of rock of the Cambrian and Precambrian before describing the torbanite, carnotite, and uranium, as possibly "the most extensive uraniferous lode formation in the world". They also looked at corundum at Yudnamutana as well as a much larger strike of the same mineral on Mount Painter, which "may turn out enormous", and studied the rocks at Mt Gee and Radium Ridge. Mawson took numerous photographs of the sites and expedition members.Mawson, Douglas. Mt. Painter 1910 (October 1910). Transcript of handwritten diary, + photos. Official transcript by volunteers at the South Australian Museum, 6 February 2024.
Mawson became involved in the establishment of a development company, the Radium Extraction Company of South Australia Ltd (in which Greenwood also bought shares). He was optimistic about the value of the mine, but sold his shares in the company in 1911 in order to help finance the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, and in 1917 the company was liquidated after not achieving success. Mawson maintained a lifelong interest in uranium, which included the publication of a paper on uranium deposits in South Australia in 1944.Mawson, D. (1944). The nature and occurrence of uraniniferous mineral deposits in South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 68, 334–357
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. 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. It was titled "Notes on the Geological Features of the Beltana District", and was not published until 2007. 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), located near Puttapa, a pastoral lease around north of Beltana. 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.
Also in 1906, while in Adelaide, he published a substantial and detailed study focused on the of the Bowral in New South Wales. This was a follow-up to his earlier work with Taylor at Mittagong (1903). In January 1907, Mawson was responsible for organising the geological section of a meeting of the AAAS in Adelaide, and presented a paper about the Barrier Ranges, near Broken Hill. As part of the conference, as reported by Howchin, Mawson participated, along with Howchin, T. Griffith Taylor, Walter Woolnough, and 16 others, in a five-day excursion dubbed "Scientific Trip of Governor Macquarie to Spencer Gulf". The ship visited Kangaroo Island as well as Neptune Islands, Williams, and , proceeded to Port Lincoln and then returned to Port Adelaide after stopping off at Wedge Island. Later that year, Mawson visited the Australian Alps with T. Griffith Taylor and W.T. Quaife, who had accompanied him on his New Hebridean expedition two years prior.
Mawson's early work shows two major interests: an academic interest in ancient glacial rocks, and the commercial possibilities of mining certain minerals. The focus of his 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 Archean ("Willyama") Series, and a newer, Proterozoic ("Torrowangee") Series. His work in this area was reported in his 1909 D.Sc. thesis, and he subsequently published "Geological investigations in the Broken Hill area", in 1912, co-authored by English geologist Walter Howchin. His work on the 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.
Until 1913 he was largely occupied with Antarctic expeditions, and only returned to geological research in Australia in 1922. He did complete his doctorate after returning from Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition and completing his studies in the Broken Hill area, and was awarded a D.Sc. at the University of Adelaide in 1909 for his thesis about the geology of the Barrier Ranges.
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. He published studies in 1937, 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.
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.
Another area of interest for Mawson was petroleum geology, in particular researching coorongite, a substance first found in 1852 at Salt Creek on the Coorong, and other deposits in the area. Some observers thought that this was formed by oil seepage, owing to its viscous nature and combustibility, but it was determined by scientists that coorongite had its origin in a type of alga called Botryococcus braunii. Mawson's diaries show that he did extensive field work in the Coorong and at Lake Albert (the first geologist to visit the latter site) in January 1938, February 1940, and January 1941, although only published one study in 1938. His personal correspondence also shows an interest in oil. Mawson's collection at the South Australian Museum also includes a sample of crude oil from Oil Creek, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, United States, although there is no indication of how he came by it. This oil, discovered by Edwin Drake, was the first discovery of unconventional crude oil in the world, and the first commercially successful oil well in the US when it opened in 1859. After his retirement from teaching in 1952, in 1954 Mawson was appointed as an inaugural director of the new oil company Santos Limited (South Australia and Northern Territory Oil Search), but resigned very soon afterwards due to ill-health, becoming an honorary consultant to the company.
During their stay, they also wrote, illustrated and printed the book Aurora Australis. Mawson contributed with the science fiction short story "Bathybia". Douglas Mawson: Home - Library Guides Aurora Australis – Bathybia
Mawson wanted to do aerial exploration and brought the first "air tractor" to Antarctica. The aircraft, a Vickers R.E.P. Type Monoplane, was to be flown by Francis Howard Bickerton. When it was damaged in Australia shortly before the expedition departed, plans were changed, and 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.
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 east of the main base. Mertz was skiing and Mawson was on his sledge 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 below them, but Ninnis was never seen again.
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. Their lack of provisions forced them to use their remaining sled dog to feed the other dogs and themselves: 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. Mertz began to deteriorate rapidly, with diarrhoea and madness, eventually falling into a coma and dying on 8 January 1913.Bickel, Lennard (2000). Mawson's Will: The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written, Hanover, New Hampshire: Steerforth Press. 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. Mawson himself also became very ill, with the soles of his feet becoming detached.
Mawson cut his remaining sledge in half to make it lighter and easier to single man-haul, taking on the barest minimum equipment with him. The half sledge is displayed in the South Australian Museum.
He continued the final alone and slowly, back to Main Base. When he 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. Home of the Blizzard (1914) 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 .
Upon his return Mawson gave public lectures, showing photographs and relating relating stories of the AAE, including at Adelaide Town Hall on 9 September 1914. He also edited the 22 volumes of the A.A.E. Scientific Reports, the publication of which was finally completed .
The Australian Government has published a website called "Home of the Blizzard: The Australasian Antarctic Experience".
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, 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.
In 1915, he represented the University of Adelaide at a conference convened by prime minister Billy Hughes in order to establish the Advisory Council of Science and Industry, which was the predecessor of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). In early 1916 Mawson participated in the first executive meetings of the new body, in which its charter and operational procedures were established.
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, its functions taken over by the Australian Academy of Science. He was a petitioner for the academy in 1953, a founding fellow 1954–1958, and council member from 1954.
From the end of World War I until 1923, he was a committee member of the Australian War Museum (later the Australian War Memorial).
He was a member of the council, and later president of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia from 1924 to 1925.
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).
In 1924-1925 and again in 1945 Mawson was president of the Royal Society of South Australia.
In 1939 he became a foreign member of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography.
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.
His other interests included conservation, farming, and forestry. 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. Mawson owned and worked a farm called "Harewood" at Meadows, and was a founding director of S.A. Hardwoods Pty Ltd. He established a mill near Kuitpo Forest. 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.
He also advocated for decimalisation and supported strict regulation of the whaling industry. When he returned from Antarctica in 1914, Mawson was determined to have Macquarie Island proclaimed a sanctuary, and this was achieved in 1916.
He was made a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1923, and was a foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He was made a life fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1913.
Other recognition and awards included:
Their first daughter, Patricia Marietje Thomas, later a notable parasitologist, was born in 1915. The family moved into an apartment in the recently-completed Ruthven Mansions in Pulteney Street, Adelaide, which was their first home together. However, Douglas was called to do war service in England, so they were only there for around a year. Paquita and Patricia went to stay with Mrs Delprat in Melbourne for some time, before Paquita, too, went to assist Mawson in his wartime role at the Ministry of Munitions in England, leaving Pat with her mother. Their second child, Jessica Paquita "Quita" Mawson (1917–2004; married name McEwin), who became a bacteriologist, was born in London.
In 1920 the Mawsons moved into their new home, "Jerbii" at 44 King Street, Brighton, built on land owned by Paquita's parents and given to Douglas and Paquita as a wedding present. They had previously rented a home on the South Esplanade while it was being built, after returning from England after World War I. They lived in Brighton until at least 1958, when Douglas died.
Paquita 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.
During his time based in England in 1916 when working for the War Office, Mawson established a close personal relationship with Kathleen Scott, the widow of polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott. Historian David Day, in his 2013 work Flaws in the Ice: In Search of Douglas Mawson, suggested that the pair had conducted an affair in 1916 in Sandwich, Kent. However, this is refuted by historian Tom Griffiths, who says that they were united in grief at the time, and found solace in each other, perhaps an emotional and spiritual connection. The claim is also rejected by Mawson's great-granddaughter Emma McEwin, who has read Kathleen Scott's diaries and written a book about her great-grandparents' marriage, and adventurer Tim Jarvis.
Mawson's elder brother William studied medicine at Sydney university and became a GP in Campbelltown. He cared for their parents in their later years, with their father Robert dying in 1912 aged 58 and their mother Margaret at the same age in 1917. Mawson Park in Campbelltown was named after William in 1938. William died in 1939.
On 12 March 1958, Mawson paid a visit to the Soviet Union Antarctic ship Cooperatzia (aka Cooperatsiya and Kooperatsiya), 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.
He was honoured with a Commonwealth state funeral on 17 October at St Jude's Church in Brighton, South Australia, where he was also interred. The Governor-General Sir William Slim, was not able to attend, but was represented at the funeral by Brigadier G. E. H. Bleby.
A memorial service was also held at St Peter's Cathedral in Adelaide, arranged by the University of Adelaide.
On 31 October 1958, a tribute to his memory was paid by members of the Soviet Geographical Society at a special meeting. Evgeny Suzyumov, a member of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition, said that Mawson had developed friendships with Soviet Antarctic explorers in his later years.
In 2008, the Brighton Historical Society with support from the Mawson and Reg Sprigg families, endorsed by the Holdfast Bay Council, installed an official monument at the gravesite of both Paquita and Douglas Mawson. The monument consists of a granite boulder from Arkaroola, gifted by the Sprigg family with the approval of the Adnyamathanha people. A small plaque acknowledges the gift, while the main plaque highlights some of Mawson's achievements.
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". 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 Fridtjof Nansen, of infinite resource, splendid physique, astonishing indifference to frost".
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".
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.Luck-Baker, Andrew. Douglas Mawson: An Australian hero's story of survival, BBC News, 27 February 2014. J. Gordon Hayes was critical of the three men not using skis.
His image appeared on several postage stamps of the Australian Antarctic Territory: 5 pence (1961), 5 pence (1961), 27 cents and 75 cents (1982), 10 cents (2011), 45 cents (1999).
In 1979 the Australian Academy of Science established the Mawson Lecture.
The centenary of Mawson's birth was celebrated in 1982, which included the Fourth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences being held at the University of Adelaide, with the proceedings dedicated to him, held in August. The symposium was brought forward two years and held in Adelaide to mark the occasion.
In 1983 the Douglas Mawson chair of geology was established at the University of Adelaide. As of 2024, Professor Alan Collins held the post.
His image appeared from 1984 to 1996 on the first Australian one hundred-dollar note, and in 2012 on a $1 coin issued within the "Inspirational Australians" series.
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, which was officially ratified by the IUGS in 2004. Sprigg co-founded, with his wife Griselda, the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, and named his son Douglas after his former mentor. Doug Sprigg continues to run the sanctuary .
In 2007, adventurer Tim Jarvis re-enacted Mawson's expedition to Antarctica, 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.
In 2011, Ranulph Fiennes included Mawson in his book My Heroes: Extraordinary Courage, Exceptional People.
In May 2012, the Australian Antarctic Magazine published a "Mawson Centenary Special" issue to commemorate 100 years since the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.
In 2013, the "Australian Mawson Centenary Expedition", led by Chris Turney and Chris Fogwill, scientists from the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, led a privately-funded expedition of 48 people including scientists and members of the public, to investigate Antarctic and subantarctic oceanography, climate, and biology. The expedition visited Mawson's huts at Cape Denison, using motorised vehicles with tracks to traverse the of ice from the shore. On the return journey, their ship, the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, became trapped in ice. After two other vessels were unable to reach the stricken ship, the expedition members were eventually being airlifted by helicopter to the Chinese polar research vessel Xue Long, while the Russian crew members had to stay on board the ship. Turney presented the results of their findings at an event at the Royal Institution in London in July 2014.
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". "This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025. The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media."
In 2015, the Australian Museum in Sydney developed an exhibition called Trailblazers: Australia's 50 Greatest Explorers, which included Mawson.
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.
At Oxley College (founded in 1982) in Burradoo, New South Wales, one of the six house system is called Mawson, as is at Clarence High School in Hobart, Tasmania, Forest Lodge Public School, and Fort Street High School, both in Sydney, where he was educated.
In April 2023, Emma McEwin, a great-granddaughter of Mawson, presented the Sir Hubert Wilkins Oration for the History Trust of South Australia, "exploring the personalities and backgrounds of both Hubert Wilkins and Douglas Mawson".
In 1948, Carroll William Dodge published a genus of fungi within the family Lichinaceae, named Mawsonia in his honour.
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.
The Douglas Mawson Antarctic Collection is held in the Tate Museum in the Mawson Building at the University of Adelaide, along with many minerals, rocks, fossils, and other specimens related to geological phenomena. The museum, named after Ralph Tate, foundation Elder Professor of Natural Sciences at the university of from 1875 until 1901, opened in 1902, and moved into Mawson Laboratories (Building) when it opened in 1952.
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.
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 language. There are a few letters written by Douglas Mawson to Patricia between 1925 and 1931.
The Sir Douglas Mawson Collection at the National Museum of Australia contains four items relating to BANZARE in 1931, including three proclamations relating to claiming land in Antarctica, and a food canister.
In his role as honorary curator of the South Australian Museum from 1906 to 1958, Mawson was instrumental in helping to establish the minerals collection there. In 1906, he arranged the purchase of part of the John Henry Dunstan Collection, which contained significant specimens from the copper mines at Burra, Moonta and Wallaroo Mines. This formed the core of the museum's now extensive minerals collection, and was at the time the largest private mineral collection in country. Mawson also assisted in the purchase of the Hall and Watkin Brown Collections, which included many specimens from Broken Hill and other important places in New South Wales.
Betewen 1905 and 1953 Mawson carried out many field trips, mostly in northeastern South Australia, and he kept diaries of every one of his roughly 70 trips. Over 30 field note books, each recording one of more trips, are held in the Polar Collection at the South Australian Museum, along with more than 2000 photographs, mostly taken on his field trips. Many of the diaries are illustrated by hand-drawn sketches and geological sections, and scans of these sketches as well as the photographs have been inserted into the transcribed diaries. The diaries also include accounts of the annual excursions with third-year geology students, who only numbered a few in the early trips but by 1948 there were 17 students and staff. If a female student was included, a female chaperone would be included, and in 1937 Mawson's daughters Patricia and Jessica joined a student excursion.
Mawson recorded significant geological observations in these diaries, mostly for his own research and preparation of scientific papers, so used many abbreviations indecipherable to the lay reader. These have been deciphered and included in the transcriptions with the help of geologist Jim Jago. The diaries also provide an interesting historical record of the times. The work continues, and it is hoped to make the content of the transcribe diaries, along with drawings and photographs, more widely available.
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. The Mawson Coast was also named after him.
In 1959, a mountain peak in Tasmania was gazetted as Mount Mawson, named after Mawson.Article, The Tasmanian Tramp, Number 11, p.42. It lies within the Mount Field National Park.
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.
In 1969 the District of Mawson, an electoral district of South Australia, was created and named in honour of Mawson.
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.Reg Sprigg: "Arkaroola-Mount Painter in the northern Flinders Ranges, S.A : The Last Billion Years." Page 298, Arkaroola Pty Ltd, 1984 Mawson Valley is also in Arkaroola, and Mawson was responsible for naming a rocky granite outcrop in the valley "Sitting Bull" in 1945.
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.
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.
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. The museum is located on the waterfront, near the wharf used by SY Aurora.
The suburb Mawson Lakes, a northern suburb of Adelaide, was founded in the late 1990s and named in his honour, and one of the two in the suburb is called the Sir Douglas Mawson Lake. A campus of the University of South Australia in the suburb is known as the Mawson Lakes campus.
The high street in Meadows, South Australia, the town near his farm, Harewood, is named after him.
Two films about BANZARE, the silent film Southward Ho with Mawson (1930) and the talkie Siege of the South (1931), both made by Frank Hurley using footage filmed by him on the expeditions, were released in cinemas as official recordings of the voyages. Takings from the film contributed to defray the costs of the expedition, and schoolchildren's attendance contributed significantly to the takings.
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. 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. The bust on North Terrace, which had been suggested by Fred Jacka of the Mawson Institute, was endorsed by Adelaide city council, and partly funded by a public fund-raising effort. Lord Mayor of Adelaide Arthur John Watson made the presentation, and Mark Oliphant unveiled the bust, which coincided with the Fourth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences, brought forward two years to celebrate the centenary of Mawson's birth. The bust is mounted on a marble base, and has a boulder of igneous rock situated on either side. The eastern boulder is of pegmatite from Mawson Valley in Arkaroola, while the western boulder is of charnockite, from Mawson, Antarctica. Another bronze bust, created by Jean Perrier in 1980, is held in Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 2023 the City of Holdfast Bay resolved to commission of a memorial bronze bust of Mawson for placement somewhere in Brighton, where the Mawson family lived.
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.
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. The film is available via the National Film and Sound Archive website and the library streaming service Kanopy.
David Roberts' 2013 account of Mawson's AAE expedition, Alone on the Ice, 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.
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) was performed at the Peacock Theatre in the Salamanca Arts Centre in Hobart. The opera was again performed at the Peacock in August 2022.
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. The work, which toured regional South Australia, was intended to convey a message about the Climate risk. Stewart won Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for South in 2019 at the Australian Dance Awards.
Career
Early work
World War I
Later career
Antarctic expeditions
Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909)
Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–1913)
BANZARE (1929–31)
Other roles and activities
Honours
Personal life
Later life and death
[[File:Mawson grave 2.JPG|alt=Plaque on boulder marking Mawson's grave| Main plaque on the granite boulder marking Mawson's grave|thumb]]
He died at his Brighton home in South Australia on 14 October 1958 from a cerebral haemorrhage, aged 76. Prime Minister Robert Menzies said of him upon hearing of his death: 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".
Ongoing work on BANZARE papers
Legacy
General
Genera and species
Collections
Transcription of early diaries
Places and landmarks
In the arts and popular culture
Footnotes
Further reading
By Mawson
Books
Significant studies
Biographies
Books about his expeditions
Articles and general reading
External links
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