Mawson Station

Mawson Station is a base for scientific research programs including an underground cosmic ray detector, various long-term meteorological aeronomy and geomagnetic studies, as well as ongoing conservation biology studies, in particular of nearby Auster rookery, a breeding ground for emperor penguins and Adélie penguins.[6]

In 1946, the Minister for External Affairs, H.V. Evatt indicated his support for a proposal by Douglas Mawson for the establishment of a permanent Australian base in Antarctica.[7] It was another seven years before a suitable ship, the Kista Dan could be chartered to set up facilities on the southern continent.

The station site was chosen in 1953 by Phillip Law, the first director of the AAD, who drew aerial photographs taken during the U.S. Operation Highjump (OpHjp) of 1946-1947 to select the site for its large natural harbour (Horseshoe Harbour) and permanently exposed rock for building.[7] The station was built during 1954. Some of the small pre-fabricated huts used in the first years remain on the station, but these are overshadowed by large steel-framed modular buildings dating from a major rebuilding program that started in the late 1970s.

By 1959, the facilities at Mawson Station had expanded significantly. Personnel at that time included 6 scientists, 4 technicians, 2 pilots, 2 weather observers, and 10 others. Scientific disciplines represented included cartography, geology and geomagnetism, glaciology, seismology, ionospheric and auroral physics, meteorology, and physiology. Vehicles included 2 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver aircraft, 3 Caterpillar D4 tractors, 1 TEA-20 Ferguson, and 1 Sno-Cat.[8]

Mawson Station is located at Holme Bay in Mac Robertson Land, East Antarctica, named in January 1930 by Sir Douglas Mawson during the first British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) voyage, aboard Discovery. It is in a region which Mawson proclaimed as British territory on several occasions in 1930 and 1931 (including at Proclamation Island, Scullin Monolith and Cape Bruce), and later became Australian Antarctic Territory.

Some notable geographic features in the region include the Framnes Mountains, which form the dramatic backdrop to Mawson Station. The Framnes Mountains were named in the 1930s by Norwegian explorers financed by the shipowner and whaling magnate Lars Christensen.

Mawson Station experiences a Polar climate:

During March and April 1960, an ANARE survey party from Mawson Station carried out a barometric mapping control traverse along the route of a 242 kilometres (150 mi) dog sledge journey from Cape Batterbee through the Napier Mountains to Martin Island in Edward VIII Bay.[10] The members of this survey party — led by Syd Kirkby — were the first people to set foot in the Napier Mountains. The highest peak of this small range — Mount Elkins — was identified and named at this time for Terence James Elkins.[11][12] Many other terrain features were mapped, visited or named as a result of this expedition, including Armstrong Peak,[13] Bird Ridge,[14] Mount Griffiths,[15] Newman Nunataks,[16] Wilkinson Peaks,[17] and the Young Nunataks.[18]

In 2018, astronaut and academic Jay C. Buckey conducted research using virtual reality, at the Australian Antarctic Division’s Mawson Station, wherein the expeditioners used VR headsets to view Australian beach scenes, European nature scenes, and North American nature scenes of forests and urban environments, which were different from the isolation of the whiteness and silence of Antarctica. The research will inform psychological techniques to support long-duration spaceflight such as for astronauts going to Mars.[19]

Mawson is 5,475 km (3,402 mi) from Hobart, the AAD's main supply hub for Antarctic operations, and 5,201 km (3,232 mi) from Fremantle.[20]

• List of Antarctic research stations
• List of Antarctic field camps
• Marble Rock (Antarctica)
• Mawson Corridor

• Bowden, Tim. The Silence Calling – Australians in Antarctica, 1947–97. Allen & Unwin.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mawson Station.

• Official website Australian Antarctic Division
• Australian Antarctic Division's Mawson Station page
• Mawson Station webcam
• Restoration of Biscoe Hut, one of the original 1954 buildings
• COMNAP Antarctic Facilities
• COMNAP Antarctic Facilities Map
• "Mawson Station Heritage Management Plan 2014 - 2019: Volume 1". Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment. Australian Government. 2014.
• "Mawson Station Heritage Management Plan 2014 - 2019: Volume 2". Australian Antarctic Division, Department of the Environment. Australian Government. 2014.