Commonwealth Bay, and I 00 years of Australian Antarctic expeditions

• Main Author: Compiled John Herben
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Commonwealth Bay; Dovers; Dundee; Antarc*; Macquarie Island
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.678.5474; http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article%3D2291%26context%3Dihsbulletin

will be held. The following is foremost based on George Dovers ' address to the Society on 2nd October 194 7 and other material from various sources. George Dovers, FRGS (Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society), a resident of Wollongong, joined Dr (later Sir) Douglas Mawson in 1911 on the first Australian Antarctic Expedition as a navigator and cartographer. The object of the expedition was to secure scientific knowledge of the 'Australian Quadrant ' the area between longitude 90 ° and 180°East a distance of3,200 km. The expedition, consisting of 37 men, lots of equipment, food for at least 2 years, sleds and dogs, left Hobart on 2"dDecember 1911 on the SY Aurora, a three-masted steam yacht of386 tons, 50m long, 9.3m beam and 5.7m draught. She was built at Dundee, Scotland, in 1876 where for many years she took part in seal and whale hunting in the Arctic. In 1910 Douglas Mawson bought the vessel specifically for the 1911 expedition and ordered a refit and strengthening of the hull and bow. Captain Davis, the Master of the vessel, was also second-in-command ofthe party. The first stop was Macquarie Island some 1100 km south-south-east of Tasmania. After some bad weather they arrived at the island where 5 men were put ashore on lith December to set up a weather station and wireless communication base. After leaving Macquarie Island the SY Aurora proceeded along the meridian of 158°