32 Facts About Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic.

Douglas Mawson completed degrees in mining engineering and geology at the University of Sydney.

Douglas Mawson was the sole survivor of the three-man Far Eastern Party, which travelled across the Mertz and Ninnis Glaciers named after his two deceased companions.

Douglas Mawson was knighted in 1914 and during World War I worked with the British and Russian militaries.

Douglas Mawson returned to the University of Adelaide in 1919 and became a full professor in 1921, contributing much to Australian geology.

Douglas Mawson returned to the Antarctic as the leader of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, which led to a territorial claim in the form of the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Douglas Mawson is commemorated by numerous landmarks and from 1984 to 1996 appeared on the Australian $100 note.

Douglas Mawson was born on 5 May 1882 to Robert Ellis Douglas Mawson and Margaret Ann Moore.

Douglas Mawson was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, but was less than two years old when his family emigrated to Australia and settled at Rooty Hill, now in the western suburbs of Sydney; Later he and his family moved to the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe in 1893.

Douglas Mawson attended Forest Lodge Public School, Fort Street Model School and the University of Sydney, where he graduated in 1902 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree.

Douglas Mawson was appointed geologist to an expedition to the New Hebrides in 1903; his report, The Geology of the New Hebrides, was one of the first major geological works of Melanesia.

Douglas Mawson then became a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1905.

Douglas Mawson joined Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the Antarctic, originally intending to stay for the duration of the ship's presence in the first summer.

Douglas Mawson turned down an invitation to join Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1910; Australian geologist Griffith Taylor went with Scott instead.

Douglas Mawson chose to lead his own expedition, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, to King George V Land and Adelie Land, the sector of the Antarctic continent immediately south of Australia, which at the time was almost entirely unexplored.

Douglas Mawson raised the necessary funds in a year, from British and Australian governments, and from commercial backers interested in mining and whaling.

Douglas Mawson wanted to do aerial exploration and brought the first aeroplane to Antarctica.

Douglas Mawson himself was part of a three-man sledging team, the Far Eastern Party, with Xavier Mertz and Lieutenant Belgrave Ninnis, who headed east on 10 November 1912, to survey King George V Land.

Mertz was skiing and Douglas Mawson was on his sled with his weight dispersed, but Ninnis was jogging beside the second sled.

Mertz and Douglas Mawson spotted one dead and one injured dog on a ledge 165 feet below them, but Ninnis was never seen again.

Later Douglas Mawson noticed a dramatic change in his travelling companion.

Douglas Mawson began to deteriorate rapidly with diarrhoea and madness.

Douglas Mawson managed to climb out using the harness attaching him to the sled.

When Douglas Mawson finally made it back to Cape Denison, the ship Aurora had left only a few hours before.

Also in 1914, he was knighted, and was preoccupied with news of the Scott disaster until the outbreak of World War I Mawson served in the war as a major in the British Ministry of Munitions.

Douglas Mawson spent much of his time researching the geology of the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

Douglas Mawson died at his Brighton home on 14 October 1958 from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Douglas Mawson's image appeared on several postage stamps of the Australian Antarctic Territory: 5 pence, 5 pence, 27 cents and 75 cents, 10 cents, 45 cents.

Douglas Mawson's image appeared from 1984 to 1996 on the Australian paper one hundred dollar note and in 2012 on a $1 coin issued within the Inspirational Australians series.

At Oxley College in Burradoo, New South Wales, a sports house is called Douglas Mawson, as is at Clarence High School in Hobart, Tasmania, Forest Lodge Public School and Fort Street High School, both in Sydney, where he was educated.

Douglas Mawson is a suburb of Canberra, district of Woden Valley, Australian Capital Territory.

Sir Douglas Mawson was buried at the historic cemetery of St Jude's Church, 444 Brighton Road, Brighton, South Australia, in 1958.