Australian dictionary biography douglas mawson book
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New biological species, on land and at sea, were described. He ranks high among our national heroes.
Mawson had married, on 31 March 1914 at Holy Trinity Church, Balaclava, Melbourne, Francisca Adriana (Paquita) Delprat (1891-1974), daughter of Guillaume Delprat; they had two daughters. After the war, until 1923, he was a committee-member of the Australian War Museum (Australian War Memorial).
Mawson returned to the University of Adelaide in 1919 and was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy in 1921.
Three bases were established: one at Macquarie Island which, apart from its scientific work, was to serve as a radio relay station; Main Base under Mawson at Commonwealth Bay (Scott having landed his second party at Cape Adare); and Western Base on the Shackleton Ice Shelf under Frank Wild. As he approached he saw the Aurora on the horizon; she had come and gone.
In 1979 the Australian Academy of Science established the Mawson lecture. With seriously depleted provisions Mawson and Mertz began their return, progressively using their dogs to supplement their food supply. They made extensive geological and biological investigations at Iles Crozet, Iles Kerguelen, Heard Island and at many points along the 1550 miles (2494 km) of coastline of Antarctica between 43 degrees E and 179 degrees E longitude.
Miegunyah Press : Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic, 1999.
Hall, Lincoln and Scanlan, Barbara Douglas Mawson : the life of an explorer. This interested him because in his South Australian studies he was 'face-to-face with a great accumulation of glacial sediments of Precambrian age, the greatest thing of the kind recorded anywhere in the world'.
After twenty-five days on the return journey, and the combined effects of hard physical exertion and starvation, this toxicity may have hastened Mertz's death. David, aged 50, suffered badly and at his request Mawson assumed leadership. Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Vic, 2000.
Parer, David, Parer-Cook, Elizabeth and Australian Broadcasting Corporation Douglas Mawson, the survivor.
G. Price, The Winning of Australian Antarctica (Syd, 1962)
Although he recognized that Shackleton's prime aim of reaching the South Pole was considered essential to financing the expedition, he would have liked more opportunity offered to the scientists.
A small party had waited to search for him; they remained for another year. This investigation led to publication of his 'Geological investigations in the Broken Hill area'; he had previously submitted the substance of this work to the University of Adelaide (D.Sc., 1909).
In November 1907 (Sir) Ernest Shackleton, leader of the British Antarctic Expedition, visited Adelaide on his way south.
Later, working for the Russian Military Commission, he investigated and reported on production in Britain in order to increase output of high explosives in Russia itself.
At each base, and in expeditions from them, major scientific investigation was pursued in geology, cartography, meteorology, aurora, geomagnetism and biology.