If you clicked on the image of the Weekly's coverage of the intrepid explorers setting out on the Wyatt Earp in 1947 (in the last post) you might like some background on the little wooden ship. The American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth made three expeditions in the...
Getting messages from family was crucial to morale at Mawson Station. They came in on the air, floating in on invisible waves through coded signals. The expeditioners were all allocated just one hundred seventy-five words a month of coded telegram each—received or...
In 1956 there were a lot of theories being tested on the human body in the dark. During the first week of winter the team at Mawson were surprised by three days of quite lovely weather, and although the days were dark, they set about cheerfully, repainting the burnt...
As the long darkness descends, lethargy disrupts sleep patterns in Antarctica. “It is easy to see why animals hibernate,” Syd noted at the beginning of June. A few days later he added: “With no sun and very short hours of light, it is becoming increasingly difficult...
Look what I found this morning! For sale at AMAZON
In the middle of May, another scare had ripped through the small community at Mawson base. Inside the tiny dongas, six men slept, although it was always someone's duty to sleep in the cold porch of one of the huts On Sunday, 13 May, a polar blizzard tore through...
A very cheerful courier just brought the first copy of the book. Just about ready for sale! It will be available through AMAZON very soon, with a rrp of $25.49 US which translates today at $27.60 Aus.
The Australian teams in Antarctica created maps of one half of that enormous continent. Their equipment, especially during the years of greatest expansion of new knowledge from 1956 - 64, were dog teams and sand weasels. The Russians also pushed the barriers of...
In the second half of May, the Antarctic day was a lantern glowing dimly. The days began with a gentle dawn luminosity for about five hours and ended with a long magenta and orange twilight. Exploration was still possible but it was much harder, so time and...