Tasmania from below: Antarctic travellers accounts of a southern 'gateway'

• Published in: Studies in Travel Writing
• Main Author: Leane, E
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2016
• Subjects: Language; Communication and Culture; Literary Studies; Literary Studies not elsewhere classified; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645145.2015.1131513; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/106410

Tasmania is often represented in travel accounts as a remote place at the edge of the world. ForAntarctic travellers, however, Tasmania is not only an end but also a means: a way-stationrather than a destination, a point from which to commence the last leg of an expedition or ahaven to return to at its conclusion, and sometimes a place to recuperate between multiplevisits. This article examines representations of Tasmania and particularly its capital cityand main port, Hobart produced by explorers and other travellers on their way to (orfrom) more southerly destinations. Antarctic travel texts compare and contrast Tasmania tohigher latitudes, contextualising it not just as a far southern margin of the familiar world,but also as a northern limit of a lesser-known region of the globe. Both Antarctic travellersjourneys and their narratives produce a connectedness between Tasmania and othercircumpolar places, which in turn embeds the island within a new geographical imaginary: asouthern rim surrounding a polar centre. These travel narratives reinforce the image ofHobart as a gateway but also put pressure on this term, suggesting a relationship with thefar south that includes but goes beyond that of an exit or entry point.