page_title: Australasian Antarctic Expedition
section_title: First season: winter 1912
hierarchical_section_title: Australasian Antarctic Expedition / Expedition history / Cape Denison / First season: winter 1912
caption_attribution_description: Australasian Antarctic Expedition lead by Douglas Mawson (1911-1914). The caption: LEANING on the wind. The figure is actually leaning on a constant 100 miles per hour wind while picking ice for culinary purposes. The text in the cropped-out half of the image of the paper: WITH SHACKLETON TO THE ANTARCTICPhotography by Captain Frank Hurley O.B.E.A KODAK PRESENTATION
context_page_description: The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was a 1911–1914 expedition headed by Douglas Mawson that explored the largely uncharted Antarctic coast due south of Australia. Mawson had been inspired to lead his own venture by his experiences on Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod expedition in 1907–1909. During its time in Antarctica, the expedition's sledging parties covered around 4,180 kilometres of unexplored territory, while its ship, SY Aurora, navigated 2,900 kilometres of unmapped coastline. Scientific activities included meteorological measurements, magnetic observations, an expansive oceanographic program, and the collection of many biological and geological samples, including the discovery of the first meteorite found in Antarctica. The expedition was the first to establish and maintain wireless contact between Antarctica and Australia. Another planned innovation – the use of an aircraft – was thwarted by an accident before the expedition sailed. The plane's fuselage was adapted to form a motorised sledge or "air-tractor", but it proved to be of very limited use.
  The expedition was organised into three bases: one on the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island and two on the Antarctic mainland.
context_section_description: The main base quarters provided a spacious living space, 7.3 by 7.3 metres (24 by 24 ft), with an attached workshop and a wide verandah for storage and housing the dogs. Away from the main huts were smaller structures, used for magnetic observations. The party quickly discovered that their chosen location was an exceptionally windy spot; powerful katabatic winds swept down to the bay from the ice sheet, storms frequently pummelled the coast, and intense localised whirlwinds battered the men and equipment. Carsten Borchgrevink, wintering at Cape Adare in 1899–1900, had reported frequent wind speeds in excess of 64 kilometres per hour (40 mph), and in one 12-hour period winds averaged above 130 kilometres per hour (80 mph), with gusts estimated to exceed 164 kilometres per hour (102 mph).  They had unknowingly settled in one of the windiest sites in Antarctica; Mawson frequently recorded gusts between 240 kilometres per hour (150 mph) and 290 kilometres per hour (180 mph) at Cape Denison.
  Mawson had planned, before winter closed in, to carry out some experimental sledging work, and on 1 March, he, Madigan and Bob Bage managed a journey of eight point zero kilometres (5 mi), before depositing a sledge and stores and returning to the hut. For the next five months, life was largely concentrated in the hut and centred on various scientific activities. Some outside work was unavoidable; the meteorologists and the magneticians made their daily readings regardless of conditions. In rare lulls, efforts were made to erect the wireless masts and establish contact with Macquarie Island, but after repeated failures, these attempts were temporarily abandoned at the end of April.
  The general routine of hut life was enlivened by elaborate celebrations of birthdays, often concluding with improvised concerts. When there was a shortage of birthdays, other occasions were eulogised; Mawson records that even the anniversary of the "First Lighting of London by Gas" was observed "with extraordinary éclat". Much use was made of the expedition's library, especially the books that brought, as Mawson put it, "the sudden breath of a world of warmth and colour, richness and vivacity".
  On 9 August, Ninnis and Mertz ventured out, to carry stores up to the five-mile depot established in March. They named this spot "Aladdin's Cave". The beginning of September saw a break in the weather, which allowed work on the wireless masts to be completed. They began transmitting to Macquarie Island but received nothing back. Several sledging journeys were possible in September before the weather closed in again; on 9 October a particularly violent wind brought the recently erected wireless masts crashing down.
caption: Exceptionally high winds hampered work outside
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