Why is Douglas Mawson important to Australian history?

Answer 1

Douglas Mawson is important to Australian history because he was a pioneering explorer of the Antarctic.

Mawson was born on 5 May 1882 in Yorkshire, and his family emigrated to Australia in 1884. They settled in Sydney, where Mawson studied geology at Sydney University. Mawson held a position as geologist to an expedition to the New Hebrides in 1903, where he gained invaluable experience. Following this, Mawson came back to Australia where, in 1905, he was appointed a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide.

In 1907, Mawson joined an expedition to Antarctica led by Ernest Shackleton, as a scientific officer, and was one of the first to ascend Mount Erebus and get close to the South magnetic pole. He was offered a place on Robert Scott's Terra Nova expedition but turned it down to lead the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914, sailing on the "Aurora".

On 2 December 1911, Mawson departed from Hobert on the "Aurora", bound for Macquarie Island, a sub-antarctic island 1500 kilometres south east of Tasmania and 1300 kilometres north of Antarctica. Here, he established a base before leaving on December 23 to explore the Antarctic continent. On 7 January 1912, the Aurora reached a place that Mawson named Commonwealth Bay. A whaleboat was sent ashore on December 8, and the point at which they landed, Cape Denison, was found to harbour an abundance of Antarctic wildlife, including Weddell seals and Adelie penguins.

Answer 2

Sir Douglas Mawson assisted the discovery of Antartica. He helped by navigating and mapping the area of the South Pole.