Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343:front:0:p35
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 88724–91742

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 pre-construction of some huts prior to the expeditions); materials and insulation to resist the cold (double layers of plank and/or boards, together with natural fibre and tar paper insulation); and particular services for remote locations including heating (compressed coal) and lighting (acetylene gas). As noted by Godden Mackay Logan (2001):

    Mawson's Main Hut, the last constructed in this era, benefited from the lessons learned with other huts. It used similar construction techniques and heating and lighting technology to the British huts. It appears to have achieved a reasonable balance between insulation, heating and ventilation. It has not yet been determined whether there was no insulation throughout, apart from tar paper, or whether a straw-like cellulose material found in parts of the living section wall cavity served this purpose.

As a group, Mawson's Huts probably retain the most intact and diverse range of accommodation and scientific facilities of the Heroic Era complexes. The strength and clarity of the spaces and functional arrangements in the living section of the Main Hut is, perhaps, greater than that revealed in the plans of other surviving Heroic Era huts. The arrangement of bunks around the central communal area, reinforced as a focus by the platform over the area, and the raking pyramid ceiling, creates a spatial volume of great character. These characteristics indicate a building of considerable design and construction significance, in addition to its historic values.

The different countries responsible for these sites are applying various levels of intervention in their management of these places:

   •         Borchgrevink's Southern Cross Hut; Scott's (Campbell's) Northern Party Hut, Cape Adare (designated as ASPA No. 159): Preservation with stabilisation, and repair (restoration and reconstruction) since the 1970s. New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust's current plan allows for some reconstruction (new canvas over the main living hut roof and a new roof over the stores hut, which has been roofless since 1902) and some minimal stabilisation and repair of the porch section of Scott's ruined Northern Party Hut. Intrusive modern interventions are to be removed, and artefacts prioritised for conservation on the basis of their condition rating, and/or their importance to site interpretation. There is no attempt to return the site to a particular period in time.

   •         Scott's Discovery Hut, Ross Island (designated as ASPA No. 158): Preservation with stabilisation, and repair (restoration and reconstruction) since the 1960s. The New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust intends to further stabilise the building against snow ingress, and is reversing changes made since