Douglas Mawson had accompanied Ernest Shackleton's 1907–09 British Antarctic Expedition. Along with Edgeworth David and Alistair Mackay, he had been part of a man-hauled sledging expedition, the first to reach the area of the South Magnetic Pole. Upon his return from Antarctica, he recommenced to his post as geology lecturer at the University of Adelaide. Despite an offer from Robert Falcon Scott to join his Terra Nova Expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole, Mawson began planning his own Antarctic expedition. Mawson's plan, which led to the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, envisaged three bases on the Antarctic continent, collectively surveying much of the coast directly south of Australia. He approached Shackleton, who not only approved of his plan but was prepared to lead the expedition himself. Although Shackleton withdrew from the expedition in December 1910, he continued to assist Mawson with publicity and fund-raising.