The trail blazed by celebrated ice explorers is the focus of an epic, upcoming Antarctic expedition.
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But for a University of Wollongong historian who will join the trek, it is the forgotten support crews involved in past ice exploration – cooks, mechanics, radio operators – who deserve a share of the limelight.
Dr Ben Maddison is among a crew of 85 people about to embark on the $1.5million research expedition to Antarctica to mark the centenary of the first Australasian Antarctic expedition led by scientist-explorer Sir Douglas Mawson.
The expedition is unusual because it includes scientists and researchers as well as paying tourists, granted passage to help finance the journey.
Dr Maddison, who has travelled to the Antarctic 10 times as a tour guide, will spend some of his time away leading tours.
He will also use the trip for the pre-publication launch of his book on Antarctic history and its forgotten facilitators.
‘‘Between 1750 and 1920, over 15,000 people visited Antarctica. Yet despite such a large number, the historiography has ignored all but a handful of celebrated explorers,’’ said Dr Maddison, of Lawson in the Blue Mountains.
‘‘Sailors, sealers, whalers, cooks, mechanics, engineers, stokers and radio operators were all necessary in bringing the upper-class ‘hero explorers’ to the continent and supporting their expeditions.’’
The expedition is being mounted by Professor Chris Turney of the University of NSW’s Climate Change Research Centre.
It will depart from New Zealand on December8 and return on January4 with a set of scientific records to compare with the vast body of research undertaken by Mawson 100 years ago.
The trip’s aim is to discover how much change has taken place on Earth since Mawson’s visit, by retracing his original route and repeating his scientific measurements.