Dovers, Robert George (Bob) (c. 1922 - 1981)

Summary

Robert Dovers was a surveyor with the first Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) to Heard Island in 1947-1948, drawing up a map of the Island. Then again in 1949 with the ANARE expedition to Macquarie Island. In 1951 he joined a party of seven Frenchman as Surveyor/Cartographer and husky trainer, for 14 months at Terre Adelie in Antarctica. On his return to Australia, he was appointed Office-in-Charge and Surveyor for the first Australian wintering party on the Antarctic Continent, 1954-1955, setting up the base that still operates as Mawson Station. During this period he was responsible for the discovery of the Prince Charles Mountains.

Details

Bob Dovers' extensive survey work is commemorated by the following placenames on Heard Island and Antarctica:

* Dovers Crater, Heard Island - a volcanic crater on Azorella Peninsula;
* Dovers Moraine, Heard Island - a moraine ridge on the eastern side of the Stephenson Glacier;
* Dovers Peak, Antarctica - one of the Stinear Nunataks in Mac.Robertson Land. Discovered in 1954 by the ANARE party led by Robert G. Dovers, after whom it is named;
* Dovers Glacier, Antarctica, a glacier extending WNW into the south-eastern side of Stefansson Bay in Kemp Land, (Renamed after Bob Dovers.)

Chronology

Career event - Fellow, Royal Geographical Society

Award - Officer, Académie des sciences

1947 - 1949

Career position - Surveyor, First Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) to Heard Island [Produced a map of Heard Island]

Nov 1949

Career position - Coroner, Tasmania

1951 - 1952

Career position - Surveyor/Cartographer, French Expedition, Adelie Land, Antarctica

1953 - 1955

Career position - Officer-in-Charge, Mawson Station, Antarctica

1 Mar 1955

Award - Polar Medal, For services with the French Antarctic Expeditions to Adelie Land 1951, 1952

c. 1956

Award - Mrs Patrick Ness Award, Royal Geographical Society, London, for geographical exploration and investigation

24 Jan 1956

Award - Clasp to the Polar Medal, for services with ANARE to Mawson 1954-55

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Dovers, Robert, Huskies (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1957), 219 pp. Details
• Scholes, Arthur [W. Arthur], Fourteen Men : Story of the Australian Antactic Expedition to Heard Island (Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1949), 273 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'Obituary: Robert George Dovers', The Australian Surveyor, 31 (2) (1982), 146-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050326.1982.10434967. Details