Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343:front:0:p26
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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 commander of the expedition and captain of the Aurora. The first stop was on 11 December 1911 at Macquarie Island (54˚30'S, 158˚57'E). The five-man party they left behind, led by meteorologist George Ainsworth, was to establish a wireless relay station and scientific base on the island which until then had been largely the domain of sealing gangs and commercial penguin oil harvesters. The station was erected on the northern end on a narrow spit of land between Hasselborough Bay and Buckles Bay. Radio contact was established with passing ships in the first months, and with New Zealand and Hobart by the time winter was approaching. A working link to Cape Denison would prove more challenging. It was not fully operational until 1913, when the party remained on the island for an unscheduled second year.

The Aurora departed Macquarie Island on 23 December 1911 and arrived at Cape Denison on 8 January 1912. On the voyage from Macquarie Island to the continent Mawson abandoned the idea of a third base in the western Ross Sea region following news of Scott's decision to establish a base there. Poor prevailing weather conditions also factored into his decision. The larger than planned Main Base at Cape Denison combined the huts intended for two separate bases, and was occupied by eighteen men – thirteen Australians, two New Zealanders, two Britons and a Swiss.

The Aurora carried an eight-man party of seven Australians led by Frank Wild (a British veteran of both Scott's and Shackleton's expeditions), more than 2000 km to the west, to establish the Western Base known as 'the Grottoes'. The Western Base was built on the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Queen Mary Land, a region first visited by the 1901-1903 German South Polar (Gauss) expedition under Erich von Drygalski. The site, which was used only for a year, has been little visited since it was occupied. The hut, erected on floating ice 27 km from land, is presumed to have disappeared into the sea with the inevitable calving of the ice shelf.

The first year: building and sledging

Mawson had Alfred Hodgeman, who would serve as the Main Base's cartographer, design the accommodation huts before leaving Australia. Based on Mawson's knowledge from the Nimrod expedition, the designs incorporated the need for wind resistance and insulation from the cold, with the convenience of being portable and straightforward to erect. The final design was a pyramid on a square base. The prefabricated huts were obtained