Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343:front:0:p25
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heroes for their bravery, physical strength and endurance.

For the first time the expedition teams built shelters and lived on the Antarctic continent for extended periods. Of the era's nine prefabricated huts, six survive – Carsten Borchgrevink's Southern Cross hut, Cape Adare (Norway/UK, 1899); Robert Scott's Discovery hut, Ross Island (UK, 1901); Otto Nordenskjöld's Antarctic hut, Snow Hill (Sweden, 1901); Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Cape Royds hut, Ross Island (UK, 1908); Robert Scott's Terra Nova Cape Evans hut, Ross Island (UK, 1911); and Mawson's Aurora huts, Cape Denison.

The Australian geologist Douglas Mawson first voyaged to the Antarctic in 1907 as part of Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition, aboard the Nimrod. He was part of a three-man team that reached the South Magnetic Pole and climbed Mount Erebus. Having returned to Adelaide as a local hero, in 1910 he began to plan a second southern journey. Rather than joining Scott's Terra Nova party in the quest for the South Pole, he envisaged a locally-planned expedition heavily focused on geology and other sciences.

Mawson intended that his AAE would be a scientific quest. It included magnetic charting for navigational purposes, geological and biological studies, and the establishment of a wireless weather station. It also targeted the area directly south of Australia, which was of both scientific and national interest. However, it may well have been the association with heroic adventure that persuaded Australian and multinational companies to donate supplies – from stationery to fuel, medicines to cigarettes, tinned food to photographic plates, soap to sleeping bags. Three well provisioned bases were to be established in Antarctica and another on Macquarie Island to transmit news back to Hobart by wireless telegraph.

On 2 December 1911, twenty-nine year-old Dr Douglas Mawson, leading a team of thirty men and accompanied by a professional crew of sailors, departed Hobart on the 50 m steam yacht Aurora, built in Dundee in the 1870s for Newfoundland whaling and sealing. The 600 t of cargo included numerous cases of supplies, timber for hut building, and fifty Greenland dogs which had been on board since Cardiff. Some supplies and passengers were carried for the first leg of the journey by the Toroa, which departed five days later. Many of the men were young graduates from Australian universities. The average age was approximately twenty-six. Four were New Zealanders, three were British and one was Swiss. The other twenty-two were Australian residents. Three of the leaders (Mawson, Wild and Davis) were veterans of other Antarctic voyages. At least two others had applied for expeditions and been rejected (Ninnis was not selected by Scott, and Murphy was rejected by Shackleton).

Londoner John King Davis, like Mawson a veteran of Shackleton's Nimrod expedition, was deputy