Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343:front:0:p34
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 86160–88998

since Mawson and his remaining AAE members had left. His party hoisted a flag on the old mast on Anemometer Hill, which became Proclamation Hill. After a ceremonial declaration and singing the national anthem, the party deposited a proclamation in a casket at the foot of the pole, claiming formal possession in the name of His Majesty King George the Fifth, His Heirs and Successors.

Apart from the proclamation, the visit – one of few landings punctuating a voyage also focused on marine science – was nostalgic. The Main Hut was entered through a skylight, to reveal that many objects and the floor were embedded in thick ice, or encrusted in frost. Several expeditioners – including Mawson and Frank Hurley who were amazed to see so much intact evidence of their AAE years – spent the night ashore in tents.

Members of the expedition took some items as souvenirs, including books, and supplemented their fuel stores by taking oil and petrol cans from the dump behind the Main Hut. They also removed the roof of the Absolute Magnetic Hut in order to gain access and replicate the AAE's magnetic measurements.

Australia became the administrator of the subject land in 1933 when the British Government handed over control. Approximately 42 % of Antarctica is now Australian Antarctic Territory. Mawson, the AAE and BANZARE all contributed to the establishment of Australia's enduring national interest in this vast portion of the Antarctic continent.

Modern scientific expedition visits

Until the 1970s, there were only brief visits to the site in the course of broader scientific expeditions which often used the Absolute Magnetic Hut to take further magnetic measurements. French parties visited the site en route to Port Martin in 1950 and 1951, and from the new Dumont d'Urville station in 1959, 1967 and 1968. New Zealand and U.S. parties visited the site, again for magnetic observations, in 1962.

The first Australian visit since BANZARE took place in 1962. The short visit allowed expeditioners to take magnetic measurements and photographs during a station resupply voyage led by Dr Phillip Law, the first Director of the AAD.

Comparison: Mawson's Huts and other Heroic Era huts

Heroic Era huts were (to varying degrees) purpose-built for polar winter accommodation, to support specific scientific expeditions. The rarity value of these huts is underlined by the scarcity of extant early Arctic expedition huts (where ship accommodation was generally used). The design form, construction materials, structure, functional planning and services of these huts reflect the function of the expeditions and their polar location.

General characteristics of the group include: building forms and structures to resist winds; prefabricated timber construction (including a numbering and colour system for ease of erection and the