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1800-1900 Whaling and sealing
Using Hobart as a base, whalers and sealers sailed into Antarctica and returned back to Hobart with their cargo of seal skins and whale oil. -
1928-1935 Flying, mapping and claiming
Aussie pilot George Wilkins becomes first explorer by aircraft.
1929 Mawson used new technology to map the coastline of the new Australian antarctic territory. -
1954-1987 Science takes over
13th February 1954, australia opens its first base in Antarctica. Mawson Station
Other bases were constructed for scientists to conduct experiments and explore the inland.
Davis station was opened in 1957 in a large ice-free area the Vestfold Hills.
1966 Casey station was built.
1987 Law Base opened which was named after Phillip law who had been in charge of Australia’s Antarctic program from 1949-1966 -
1990 to the present
Australians have continued to test themselves in Antarctica’s extreme conditions.
1999 two Australians and a New Zealander reached the south pole on foot as members as Icetrek expeditions. -
1900-1916 the heroic era: the explorers
In 1907, british explorer Ernest Shackleton visited Antarctica. With him were several Australians like John King Davis who was the captain of the expedition’s ship, and a young geologist named Douglas Mawson. Mawson and his small party were the first people to climb Mount Erebus and to reach the South Magnetic Pole. Mawson returned in 1911 as the head of the first Australasian Antarctic Expedition, Which mapped 3000 kilometres of the coastline for the first time.
Shackleton returns to attempt t