Aurora: Douglas Mawson and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-14 - Beau Riffenburgh

In 1911 Douglas Mawson organised and led the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) - a scientific investigation of the Antarctic on a scale never before considered. At the same time it was responsible for the exploration of vastly more territory than any other Antarctic expedition. It consisted of three land bases operated by 32 men, seven major sledging journeys (as well as numerous shorter ones), and a full oceanographic programme in addition to its shore-based scientific studies. Yet what was intended by Mawson to be a scientific exercise devoid of heroic adventure, also proved to be a tale of death, determination, and raw courage.

The dynamic character of Mawson, the expedition’s sheer scale, and the fact that most of what happened on it has never entered the public consciousness were very appealing reasons to investigate such an epic venture. Compiled, for the first time, from all the available sources—diaries, correspondence and reports— the result is the first examination of the full expedition since Mawson’s The Home of the Blizzard was published in 1915. It was Mawson who...of all Southern explorers, gave the world the greatest contributions in polar science and his own people the greatest territorial possessions in the Antarctic.

…the greatest survival story in the history of Exploration Sir Edmund Hillary

Beau Riffenburgh is an historian specialising in exploration, particularly Polar. He served for 14 years as editor of Polar Record, headed the Scott Polar Research Institute’s Polar History Group and lectured in Cambridge University’s History Faculty. He has written numerous books on polar exploration, including The Myth of the Explorer, and Nimrod, the tale of Shackleton’s heroic attempt on the South Pole. He was also the editor of the award-winning, two-volume Encyclopaedia of the Antarctic, the most comprehensive Antarctic reference work ever published.

536pp, hardback, jacketed, over 70 photographs, 11 maps and drawings, 1 pull out-map