Mawson, Douglas (1882 - 1958)

Summary

Sir Douglas Mawson was one of Australia's foremost geologists and Antarctic explorers. He joined the University of Adelaide in 1905 as Lecturer, being Professor of Geology and Mineralogy from 1921 to1952. During his pioneering research on the geology of South Australia and New South Wales he engaged in extensive field work, this also being a feature of his teaching. Mawson was the first to identify radium-bearing ore in Australia. He was particularly interested in the scientific exploration of Antarctica and participated in three expeditions to the continent. During the third British Antarctic Expedition 1907 - 1909 under Ernest Shackleton, Mawson acted as surveyor, cartographer and magnetician. The Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911 - 1914 led by Mawson was, although struck by tragedy, one of the most successful expeditions of the period. He also led the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition of 1929 - 1931, during which more coastline was discovered and more territory charted than in previous expeditions. Mawson received numerous awards for his Antarctic work. He was an active participant in scientific societies, holding office as President of the Royal Society of South Australia and the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science.

Details

Chronology

1901

Education - Bachelor of Engineering (BE), University of Sydney

1903

Career position - Expedition to the New Hebrides

1904

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Sydney

1905 - 1920

Career position - Lecturer in Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Adelaide

1907 - 1909

Career position - Surveyor, cartographer and magnetician, third British Antarctic Expedition

1908

Award - Antarctic Medal, Royal Geographical Society, England

1909

Education - Doctor of Science (DSc), University of Adelaide

1909

Award - Polar Medal (Silver) - Shackleton's 'Nimrod's' Furthest South Expedition

1911 - 1914

Career position - Leader, Australasian Antarctic Expedition

1913 - 1958

Award - Life Fellow, Royal Geographical Society

1914

Award - Polar Medal (Silver) - Mawson's Australian Expedition

1914

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt) - In recognition of services to polar exploration

1915

Award - Founder's Medal, Royal Geographical Society, United Kingdom

1915

Award - Helen Culver Gold Medal, Chicago Geographical Society, U.S.A.

1915

Award - Silver Wolf of Boy Scouts, The Scouts Association

1916

Award - David Livingston Centenary Medal, American Geographical Society, U.S.A.

1916 - 1919

Military service - War service in Europe

1919 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Geography), Australian National Research Council

1919

Award - Bigsby Medal, Geological Society of London, United Kingdom

1920

Career position - President, Section E (Geology), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1920

Award - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

1920 - 1952

Career position - Professor of Geology, University of Adelaide

1923 - 1958

Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)

1924 - 1925

Career position - President, Royal Society of South Australia

1926

Career position - President, Section E (Geology), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1927

Award - Gold Medal for Oceanographical Research, Paris Geographical Society, France

1928

Award - Nachtigal gold medal, Gessellschaft für Erdkunde, Germany

1929 - 1931

Career position - Leader, British, Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE)

1930

Award - Mueller Medal, Australasian Association for Advancement of Science

1931

Award - Polar Medal (Bronze)

1931

Award - Sir Joseph Verco Medal, Royal Society of South Australia

1931

Award - Founder's Medal, Royal Geographical Society of Australia Queensland, Australia

1931

Award - John Lewis Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South AustralianBranch

1932 - 1937

Career position - President, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

1935

Award - Silver Jubilee Medal, United Kingdom

1936

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales, Australia

1937

Career event - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

1937

Award - Coronation Medal, United Kingdom

1939

Award - Foreign Member, Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography

1945

Career Position - President, Royal Society of South Australia

1950

Award - John Lewis Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch

1950

Award - Gold Medal, Royal Society of South Australia

1952

Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, University of Sydney

1953

Award - Coronation Medal, United Kingdom

1953 - 1954

Career event - Petitioner for the Australian Academy of Science

1954 - 1958

Award - Founding Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Douglas Mawson - Records, 1937 - 1964, MS 030; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide

• Douglas Mawson - Records, 1887 - 1956, MSS 0009; Barr Smith Library, Special Collections, The University of Adelaide. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Douglas Mawson - Records, 1931, MS 5970; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

South Australian Museum Archives

• Douglas Mawson - Records, 1882 - 1958; South Australian Museum Archives. Details
• Douglas Mawson - Records, 1903, NA 11; South Australian Museum Archives. Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

• Douglas Mawson - Records, 1904 - 1973, PRG 523; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Smith, Ailie, Adolph Basser Library Manuscript Collection, eScholarship Research Centre, 2012, http://www.eoas.info/basser_browse.html. Details

Books

• Ayres, Philip, Mawson: a Life (Carlton South: Melbourne University Press, 2003), 321 pp. Details
• Ferguson, Richard, Antarctic Artefacts: a Selective Description and Annotated Catalogue of Artefacts in the Mawson Collection at the University of Adelaide (Adelaide: University of Adelaide, 1995), 282 pp. Details
• Fitzsimons, Peter, Mawson: and the Ice Men of the Heroic Age: Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen (North Sydney: William Heinemann, 2011), 737 pp. Details
• Fletcher, Harold Oswald, Antarctic Days with Mawson: a Personal Account of the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition of 1929-31 (London: Angus & Robertson, 1984), 313 pp. Details
• Glaessner, M.; and E. Rudd, E., Sir Douglas Mawson anniversary volume: contributions to geology in honour of Sir Douglas Mawson's 70th birthday anniversary (Adelaide: University of Adelaide, 1952), 224 pp. Details
• Hains, Brigid, The Ice and the Inland: Mawson, Flynn and the Myth of the Frontier (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2002), 219 pp. Details
• Hall, Lincoln, Douglas Mawson: the Life of an Explorer (London: New Holland Press, 2000), 224 pp. Details
• Hurley, Frank, Argonauts of the south: being a narrative of voyagings and polar seas and adventures in the Antarctic with Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton (New York: London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1925), 290 pp. Details
• Mawer, Granville Allen, South by Northwest: the Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica (Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2006), 319 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, The home of the blizzard: being the story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911 - 1914, 2 vols (London: J.B. Lippincott: Heinemann, 1915). Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Records of the aurora polaris (Sydney: Government Printer, 1925), 199 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Marine biological programme and other zoological and botanical activities (Sydney: Government Printer, 1940), 131-67 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Catalogue of rocks and minerals collected in Antarctic lands (Sydney: Government Printer, 1940), 407-29 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Sedimentary rocks (Sydney: Government Printer, 1940), 347-67 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Record of minerals of King George Land (Sydney: Government Printer, 1940), 373-403 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Hydrological observations, made on board S.Y. "Aurora", reduced, tabulated and edited (Sydney: Government Printer, 1940), 107-25 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Geographical narrative and cartography (Sydney: Government Printer, 1942), 364, [62] pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Macquarie Island: its geography and geology (Sydney: Government Printer, 1942), 194 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, Narrative, part 1: cartography, part 2 (Sydney: Government Printer, 1942), 492 pp. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, The Home of the Blizzard: the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 (Kent Town, SA: Wakefield Press, 1996), 534 pp. Details
• McConville, Andrew, In search of the last continent: Australia and early Antarctic exploration (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022), 227 pp. Details
• McEwin, Emma, The many lives of Douglas Mawson (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2018), 180 pp. Details
• McGregor, Alasdair, Mawson's Huts: an Antarctic Expedition Journal (Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1998), 200 pp. Details
• Moyes, Morton; Gray, Percival; Mawson, Douglas, Records of the Queen Mary Land station; [together with] Meteorological log of the S.Y. Aurora; Sledge journey weather records; appendix: Macquarie Island weather notes for 1909-1910-1911 (Sydney: Government Printer, 1939), 279 pp. Details
• Peter, David and Parer-Cook, Elizabeth, Douglas Mawson, the Survivor (Morwell: Alella Books in association with the ABC, 1983), 160 pp. Details
• Price, A. Grenfell, The Winning of Australian Antarctica: Mawson's BANZARE voyages, 1929-31: based on the Mawson Papers (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1962), 241 pp. Details
• Riffenburgh, Beau, Racing with Death: Douglas Mawson - Antarctic Explorer (London: Bloomsbury, 2008), 296 pp. Details
• Riffenburgh, Beau, Aurora: Douglas Mawson and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1914 (Norwich: Erskine Press, 2011), 525 pp. Details
• Tahan, Mary R., The return of the South Pole sled dogs: with Amundsen's and Mawson's Antarctic expeditions (Berlin: Springer, 2021), 492 pp. Details
• Taylor, T. Griffith, Douglas Mawson (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1962). Details

Book Sections

• Hains, Brigid, 'Mawson of the Antarctic, Flynn of the Inland: progressive heroes on Australia's ecological frontiers' in Ecology and empire: environmental history of settler societies, Griffiths, Tom; and Robin, Libby, eds (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997), pp. 154-68. Details
• Jacka, F. J., 'Mawson, Sir Douglas (1882-1958), geologist and explorer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 454-457. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100444b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Flannery, Nancy Robinson ed., This Everlasting Silence the Love Letters of Paquita Delprat and Douglas Mawson 1911-1914 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), 192 pp. Details
• Innes, Margaret and Duff, Heather eds, Mawson's Papers: a Guide to the Scientific, Personal and Business Papers of Sir Douglas Mawson, OBE, BE, DSc, FRS, FAA, 1882-1958, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, Antarctic Scientist and Explorer (Adelaide: Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research, University of Adelaide, 1990), 318 pp. Details
• Jacka, Fred and Jacka, Eleanor eds, Mawson's Antarctic diaries (Sydney: Allen & Unwin Australia, 1988), 414 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Professor Sir Douglas Mawson, Kt, OBE, BE, DSc FRS, 1882-1958', Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, 82 (1959), 1-6. Details
• Alderman, A. R. and Tilley, Cecil Edgar, 'Douglas Mawson, 1882 - 1958', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (1960), 119-27, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1960.0011. Details
• Carrington-Smith, Denise, 'Mawson and Mertz: a Re-evaluation of their Ill-fated Mapping Journey during the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition', Medical Journal of Australia, 183 (11/12) (2005), 638-641. Details
• Cooper, B. J., 'Bragg, Mawson and Brown, and the Early Uranium Discoveries in South Australia', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 133 (2009), 199-218 . Details
• Cooper, Barry J.; and Jago, James B., 'Mawson's Earliest (1906) Report on the Geology of the Flinders Ranges', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 131 (2007), 167-74. Details
• Corbett, David W.P., 'Douglas Mawson: the Geologist as Explorer', Records of the South Australian Museum, 30 (2) (1998), 107-136. Details
• J. B. C. [ie John B. Cleland], 'Douglas Mawson, 1882-1958 (Memorial series, no. 17)', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 84 (3) (1960), 410-414. Details
• Jago, James B.; and Pharoah, Mark D., 'Pre-Antarctic Mawson in South Australia and western New South Wales', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 140 (1) (2016), 107-28. Details
• Jago, James B.; Pharoah, M. D.; and Wilson-Roberts, C. L., 'Douglas Mawson's First Major Geological Expedition: the New Hebrides, 1903', Earth Sciences History, 24 (1) (2005), 93-111. Details
• Laseron, Charles F., 'Obituary: Sir Douglas Mawson', Australian Journal of Science, 21 (5) (1958), 134-135. Details
• Law, Phillip, 'The Mawson story - no. 3: Antarctic triumphs to remember', Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, 57 (3) (1986), 14-24. Details
• Law, Phillip, 'The Mawson Story - No 1: 'a Powerful, Stubborn and Gentle Man'', Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, 57 (1) (1986), 3-13. Details
• Law, Phillip, 'The Mawson Story - Part 2: Hungry and Alone in the Antarctic', Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, 57 (2) (1986), 13-18. Details
• MacLeod, Roy, ''Full of Honour and Gain to Science': Munitions Production, Technical Intelligence and the Wartime Career of Sir Douglas Mawson, FRS', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (2) (1988), 189-202. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9880720189. Details
• Mawson, D., 'The Australasian Antarctic expedition', Geographical Journal, 37 (6) (1911), 609-17. Details
• Mawson, D., 'Sir Tannatt William Edgeworth David, 1858 - 1934', Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1 (4) (1935), 493-501. Details
• Mawson, D., 'The Role of Geology in the Activities of the Royal Society of South Australia.', Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, lxxvii (1954), xii-xiv. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, 'Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911 - 1914', Geographical journal, 44 (3) (1914), 257-86. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, 'Water-power resources in Australasia', Commonwealth Engineer, 6 (6) (1919), 181. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, 'A Current Geographical Outlook', Report of the fifteenth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 15 (1921), 145-160, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14537323. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, 'The Antarctic cruise of the Discovery', Geographical review, 20 (4) (1930), 535-54. https://doi.org/10.2307/209010. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, 'The B. A. N. Z. Antarctic Research Expedition, 1929-31', Geographical journal, 80 (2) (1932), 101-26, https://doi.org/10.2307/1784070. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, 'Sir Tannatt William Edgworth David 1858 - 1934 1(4):493-501', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1 (4) (1935), 493-501, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1935.0012. Details
• Mawson, Douglas, 'Progress in Knowledge of the Geology of South Australia', Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, 60 (1936), lvi-lxv. Details
• Mawson, Douglas; and Laby, Thomas, 'Preliminary observations on radio-activity and the occurrence of radium in Australian minerals', Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 38 (1904), 382-9. Details
• Peake-Jones, Ken, 'The Other Mawson: a Centennial Tribute to Sir Douglas Mawson', Royal Geographical Society of Australia (SA Branch), Proceedings, 82 (1984), 64-70. Details
• Pring, Allan, and Brugger, Joël, 'Mawson and the Radium and Uranium Mineralisation at Mount Painter, Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia', Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin, 6 (2013), 86-9. Details
• Quilty, Patrick G., 'Laying the foundation: Early Australian Earth Scientists in the Antarctic, Part 1', TAG: Geological Society of Australia Newsletter, 160 (2011), 24-6. Details
• Quilty, Patrick G., 'Early Australian Earth Scientists in the Antarctic, Part 3: the Foundation Laid - Mawson's Men', TAG: Geological Society of Australia Newsletter, 162 (2012), 19-24. Details
• Scheckter, John, 'Douglas Mawson and the nation of science', Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, 20 (2) (2020), 1-14. Details
• Thomas, Alun, 'Mawson's other diaries', SEGments: journal of the Scientific Expedition Group, 37 (3) (2021), 2-6. Details
• Urwin, Jessica, 'The radioactive Dr Mawson: Douglas Mawson and the quest for Australia's radium riches, 1904-58', Australian historical studies, 53 (1) (2022), 26-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2021.1958878. Details

Newspaper Articles

• 'Medal Awards - For Antarctic Research Expedition', The Canberra Times (1934), 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2350520. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q434281. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/37220550. Details
• Geological Society of Australia, Australian geology hall of fame, Earth Sciences History Group, Geological Society of Australia, 2022. https://www.gsa.org.au/Public/Public/Specialist_Groups/ESHG_Sub_Pages/ESHG_Biographies.aspx?hkey=1bfc25ca-efd5-4f91-9536-dabf175139ce. Details
• 'Mawson, Douglas (1882-1958)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-503844. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Mawson, Douglas - Ms 30', in Listing of Adolph Basser Library holdings, Australian Academy of Science, 1994, http://www.science.org.au/basser/manuscript-collection/ms030.html. Details
• 'Awards and rewards', in Home of the Blizzard: The Australasian Antarctic Expedition, Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Government, 2014, http://mawsonshuts.antarctica.gov.au/homecoming/marriage,-knighthood,-war-and-other-tasks/awards-and-rewards. Details
• Flannery, Nancy, 'Beyond the Balaclava', in Ockham's Razor, Radio National, 2003, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1013305.htm. Details

Reviews

• Hains, Brigid, The Ice and the Inland: Mawson, Flynn and the Myth of the Frontier (2002)
  Hince, Bernadette, Historical Records of Australian Science, 14 (4), (2003), 547-548. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR03010. Details
• Riffenburgh, Beau, Aurora: Douglas Mawson and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1914 (2011)
  Lucas, Anna, Polar Journal, 2, (2012), 174-5. Details

See also

• Anon, 'Antarctica, geology and the Frank Stillwell Collection', Newsletter, Australian Academy of Science, 173 (2023), 4. https://www.science.org.au/academy-newsletter/july-2023-173/antarctica-geology-and-the-frank-stillwell-collection. Details
• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_m.html. Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_m.html. Details
• Chester, Jonathan, Going to extremes: Project Blizzard and Australia's Antarctic heritage (Sydney: Auckland: Doubleday Australia, 1986), 308 pp. Details
• Crompton, R. W., 'Leonard George Holden Huxley 1902-1988', Historical Records of Australian Science, 8 (4) (1991), 249-264. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9910840249.htm. Details
• Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926 (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1966), 203 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/origins-csiro. pages 46, 50. Details
• Jensen, David, Mawson's remarkable men: the personal stories of the epic 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expediton (Sydeny: Allen and Unwin, 2015), 183 pp. Details
• Lugg, Desmond and Ayton, Jeff, 'In the Footsteps of McLean, Jones and Whetter: 100 Years of Australian Antarctic Medical Practice', Australian Antarctic Magazine, 22 (2012), 36-9. Details
• Pring, A., 'The mineral collections of the South Australian Museum', Australian Journal of Mineralogy, 6 (2000), 59-70. Details
• Quinn, Kylie, 'Mawson's Men', Australian Antarctic Magazine, 22 (2012), 8-12. Details
• Rossiter, Heather ed., Mawson's Forgotten men : the 1911-1913 Antarctic Diary of Charles Turnbull Harrisson (Sydney: Murdoch Books, 2011), 299 pp. Details
• Sherratt, Tim, '"On the beach": Australia's nuclear history' (1996).. http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/pubs/articles/tps/tps_on_the_beach.htm. Details
• Squire, Jayden, Curnow, Paul, Milnes, Anthony and Gostin, Victor, 'Notes on the Pens Collection of Australites in the Tate Museum, The University of Adelaide, and their use as artefacts', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 147 (2) (2023), 161-72, https://doi.org/10.1080/03721426.2023.2240994. Details
• White, F. W.G., 'Robert Gordon Menzies (1894-1978)', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (1) (1980), 68-102. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9800510068. Details
• Wilson, David, 'Douglas, Gilbert Eric (1902-1970), air force officer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 14: 1940 - 1980 Di-Kel, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), pp. 23-24. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140026b.htm. Details