Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343:front:0:p30
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2013L01343
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 76067–78828

the next food depot, being trapped for an entire week by poor weather in Aladdin's Cave, barely a day's march from his goal.

Mawson arrived back utterly exhausted on 8 February 1913. After three months away from the Main Base, including the tortuous solo trek, he arrived just hours after the departure of the Aurora, which was immediately contacted by the volunteers who had elected to remain behind and continue the search. However, due to the risks associated with returning, Captain Davis decided to leave Mawson and a six man team – Bickerton, Madigan, Bage, Hodgeman, McLean, and Jeffryes – for another year in Antarctica. The bare essentials accompanying Mawson were a doctor turned biologist, two engineers, a cartographer, magnetician and wireless operator.

There were two major expeditions from the Western Base, leaving just one man (Moyes, the meteorologist) to look after the Grottoes for nine weeks of 'immense' silence, while he hoped for the safe return of his comrades:

    Western expedition to Gaussberg: Jones, Hoadley and Dovers crossed the Helen Glacier and islands adjacent to Haswell Island. This party climbed Gaussberg (370 m) and charted the coastline.

    Eastern Expedition to Denman Glacier: Wild, Watson, Harrisson and Kennedy charted 650 km of coast (Bay of Winds, Delay Point, Redi Glacier, and Cape Gerlache) before meeting the Aurora in February 1913.

The unplanned second year

Captain Davis's decision not to retrieve Mawson, due to the impossibility of entering Boat Harbour and the need to retrieve the party from the Western Base, stretched the AAE into an unplanned second year.

Mawson had lost most of his hair, and his feet were badly damaged. The doctor, McLean, nursed him back to health, and the small party set out to improve the general living conditions in the Main Hut which now housed seven rather than eighteen men. With little in the way of planned activities to complete, the second year was a contrast to the very active first year, and most accounts of the expedition pay it scant attention.

Food was moved inside, the wireless was transferred to the living section and new shelves were constructed. The Aurora had delivered a new set of dogs, formerly used by Amundsen and which proved worthy replacements of the original teams that had been lost. The party continued on a smaller scale their study of geology and biology, and their collection of magnetic and meteorological data.

In May 1913 the Transit Hut was erected to house a twenty-inch transit telescope, and with this, in conjunction with wireless signals from the Melbourne Observatory, Webb and Bage fixed Cape Denison's longitude.

The strain of isolation, boredom and grief for the two lost comrades and the narrowly missed chance to