History
January 17th 2013 was the centenary of Sir Douglas Mawson’s escape from an Antarctic crevasse, a feat which epitomised the great explorer’s herculean determination and will to survive.
This determination enabled him to endure severe pain, starvation and despair to live what Sir Edmund Hillary called “probably the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration.”
In 1912 Mawson led an Australian scientific expedition to the unexplored Antarctic coast directly south of Australia. The main part of the expedition wintered in Commonwealth Bay, and in the spring six sledging parties set out to survey the region.
On December 14th after travelling 500 km, tragedy befell the team of three headed by Mawson when Belgrave Ninnis, together with most of their supplies, was lost in a crevasse. Mawson and Xavier Mertz turned back, realizing that they would need to eat the remaining Huskies to survive. Sadly, on January 8th Mertz died from exposure and malnutrition.
Mawson struggled on alone towards the base, severely weakened and in pain from drastically reduced rations and excess vitamin A. On January 17th 1913, he suddenly found himself dangling in his sled harness down an enormous crevasse, held by the sled that was miraculously anchored in soft snow above.
In his half-starved, exhausted state, not knowing whether or not the sled would hold, he somehow managed to climb up the four metres of rope almost to the surface. But then the lip of snow gave way, plunging him down again. At this point he was ready to end it all by slipping from his harness, but the lines of a poem by Robert Service came to him, and with a burning effort of will he inched his way back up to the surface.
After his escape from the crevasse, Mawson pulled his sled alone for three more weeks, arriving back at the base just hours after the ship that was to take him back to Australia had left. He had to wait another ten months for the ship to return.
Following recuperation amongst friends at the Antarctic base during the winter, Mawson did eventually return home to Adelaide. In 1914 he was knighted, and his portrait has appeared on the $100 note and several postal stamps.
The painting of Mawson is by Brisbane-based artist Scott Breton, winner of the prestigious A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship.
The photo of Mawson is reproduced with the permission of the South Australian Museum.
This determination enabled him to endure severe pain, starvation and despair to live what Sir Edmund Hillary called “probably the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration.”
In 1912 Mawson led an Australian scientific expedition to the unexplored Antarctic coast directly south of Australia. The main part of the expedition wintered in Commonwealth Bay, and in the spring six sledging parties set out to survey the region.
On December 14th after travelling 500 km, tragedy befell the team of three headed by Mawson when Belgrave Ninnis, together with most of their supplies, was lost in a crevasse. Mawson and Xavier Mertz turned back, realizing that they would need to eat the remaining Huskies to survive. Sadly, on January 8th Mertz died from exposure and malnutrition.
Mawson struggled on alone towards the base, severely weakened and in pain from drastically reduced rations and excess vitamin A. On January 17th 1913, he suddenly found himself dangling in his sled harness down an enormous crevasse, held by the sled that was miraculously anchored in soft snow above.
In his half-starved, exhausted state, not knowing whether or not the sled would hold, he somehow managed to climb up the four metres of rope almost to the surface. But then the lip of snow gave way, plunging him down again. At this point he was ready to end it all by slipping from his harness, but the lines of a poem by Robert Service came to him, and with a burning effort of will he inched his way back up to the surface.
After his escape from the crevasse, Mawson pulled his sled alone for three more weeks, arriving back at the base just hours after the ship that was to take him back to Australia had left. He had to wait another ten months for the ship to return.
Following recuperation amongst friends at the Antarctic base during the winter, Mawson did eventually return home to Adelaide. In 1914 he was knighted, and his portrait has appeared on the $100 note and several postal stamps.
The painting of Mawson is by Brisbane-based artist Scott Breton, winner of the prestigious A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship.
The photo of Mawson is reproduced with the permission of the South Australian Museum.
