Sir Douglas Mawson OBE FRS FAA[1][3] (5 May 1882 – 14 October 1958) was a British-born Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic.

Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, he was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Mawson's first experience in the Antarctic came as a member of Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909), alongside his mentor Edgeworth David.

The expedition explored thousands of kilometres of previously unexplored regions, collected geological and botanical samples, and made important scientific observations.

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.

He 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.

[4] Mawson joined Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909) to the Antarctic, originally intending to stay for the duration of the ship's presence in the first summer.

In doing so they became, in the company of Alistair Mackay, the first to climb the summit of Mount Erebus and to trek to the South magnetic pole, which at that time was over land.

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

[7] The expedition, using the ship SY Aurora commanded by Captain John King Davis, departed from Hobart on 2 December 1911, landed at Cape Denison (named after Hugh Denison, a major backer of the expedition) on Commonwealth Bay on 8 January 1912, and established the Main Base.

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 George V Land.

After five weeks of excellent progress mapping the coastline and collecting geological samples, the party was crossing the Ninnis Glacier 480 km east of the main base.

They sledged for 27 hours continuously to obtain a spare tent cover they had left behind, for which they improvised a frame from skis and a theodolite.

Mertz may have eaten more of the liver because he had been used to a vegetarian diet, and so may have found the tough muscle tissue difficult to eat, thus being exposed to greater toxicity than Mawson.

His party, and those at the Western Base, had explored large areas of the Antarctic coast, describing its geology, biology and meteorology, and more closely defining the location of the South magnetic pole.

In his book The Home of the Blizzard, Mawson talked of "Herculean gusts" on 24 May 1912 which he learned afterwards "approached two hundred miles per hour".

[18] These katabatic winds can reach around 300 km/h (190 mph) and led Mawson to dub Cape Denison "the windiest place on Earth".

Also in 1914, he was knighted, and was preoccupied with news of the Scott disaster until the outbreak of World War I. Mawson served 1916-1919 as a Captain (later acting-Major) in the British Ministry of Munitions, based in Liverpool.

The Mawson Collection of Antarctic exploration artefacts is on permanent display at the South Australian Museum, including a screening of a recreated version of his journey that was shown on ABC Television on 12 May 2008.

[7] In December 2013, the first opera to be based on Mawson's 1911–1914 expedition to Antarctica, The Call of Aurora (by Tasmanian composer Joe Bugden)[31] was performed at The Peacock Theatre in Hobart.

The Call of Aurora investigates the relationship between Douglas Mawson and his wireless operator, Sidney Jeffryes, who developed symptoms of paranoia and had to be relieved of his duties.

The acclaimed contemporary dance work reflects upon the treacherous journey across the wilds of eastern Antarctica undertaken by Mawson and his ill-fated team in the summer of 1912–1913.

Garry Stewart won Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for South in 2019 at the Australian Dance Awards, presented by AusDance.

David Roberts' account of Mawson's AAE expedition, Alone on the Ice, and the deadly effect of dog liver are referenced in the plot of an episode of British television series New Tricks, where it is used to commit the almost-perfect murder.