Author: Phillip Law Publisher: London: Edward Stanford, Royal Geographical Society, 1954. Item is in Original Condition, with Blue Wrappers - As Issued, Complete with All the Ads! Notes & Condition: With a chart tracking the course of the specially designed Australian ice-breaker ship called Kista Dan, and four remarkable photographic views, Phillip Law describes his difficult but successful mission - having establishing a completely functional station for future scientific work in the region of Mac. Robertson Land, Antarctica. Resolute in his endeavour, Law and his modest team of twenty-four, battled fierce windstorms and deadly moving ice in 1953-1954, to erect "Mawson Station" which he named after Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson. Established in 1954 in Holme Bay, Mac Robertson Land, Mawson is Australia's oldest Antarctic station and the oldest continuously inhabited Antarctic station south of the Antarctic Circle. On 13 February 1954 the party led by Law raised the Australian flag on the rocky shore of Horseshoe Harbour. In the first year a 10 Australians spent winter in cramped but adequate accommodation under the leadership of Robert Dovers. By the end of the year, they had erected the living quarters, a works hut, a carpenter's shop, an engine shed, two store houses. 8vo. 12 pages including sketch maps, plus photographic plates for illustration. Original condition with blue wrappers, titles to front, and containing all the ads. This is a complete issue, seldom found in such good and original condition. Excerpt from the text: "The Kista Dan, under the command of Captain H. C. Petersen, arrived at Melbourne on 11 December 1953... the ship loaded stores and supplies for both Heard Island and Antarctica..." "Three 'weasels' were taken... two living caravans to be towed behind the weasels which were fitted with insulated cabins. Five huts were landed... to provide sleeping, messing and cooking quarters, and one specially designed... to serve as radio, meteorological, survey and medical accommodation, and an engine house and two storehouses..." "Proceeding to the French Station at Port aux Français, Iles de Kerguelen, the Kista Dan took on 50 tons of gas-oil, 36 tons of water, petrol for weasels and aircraft, and diesel fuel for the Antarctic station..." "Early on Saturday, February 6, the wind rose and prevented any action... 60 knots and snowing... storm continued all day, causing great ice movements to port and astern of the ship... Kista Dan was immovably wedged." "The time until our departure, February 23, was employed on a variety of tasks. Three huts were completed... seals were killed and skinned for winter dog-food; gravity and magnetic observations, also an astronomical determination of position, were made at Mawson; geological and botanical specimens were collected; and philatelic mail, comprising 23,000 letters, were stamped." "Several emperor penguin skeletons were found at Mawson but no live emperor... There were no penguin rookeries at Mawson... but there was an Adélie penguin rookery on the island where Dover camped... where the Kista Dan first began to break into the fast-ice... a long line of thousands of Adélie penguins stretched... many of the chicks were dying from starvation..." "Mawson provided an ideal site for station..." End Excerpt. Today, Mawson Station houses approximately 20 personnel over winter and up to 60 in summer. It is the only Antarctic station to use wind generators for over 70% of its power needs, saving over 600,000 litres of diesel fuel per year. Some of the small pre-fabricated huts used in the first years remain on the station, but these are overshadowed by large steel-framed modular buildings dating from a major rebuilding program which started in the late 1970s. As intended by Law, it now serves as a base for scientific research programs, including an underground cosmic ray detector, various long-term meteorological, aeronomy and geomagnetic studies, as well as ongoing conservation biology studies, in particular of nearby Auster rookery, a breeding ground for emperor penguins and Adélie penguins. Phillip Garth Law AC, CBE, FAA (1912-2010) was an Australian scientist and explorer who served as director of Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) from 1949 to 1966. He spent the first of many summers in Antarctica in 1947-48 as a senior research officer on ANARE, soon becoming director. He established bases in Mawson, Davis and Casey, and led expeditions that explored more than 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) of coastline and some 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) of territory. From 1966 to 1980 he chaired the Australian National Committee on Antarctic Research. He published many works on his exploration. Law's wife Nel became the first Australian woman in Antarctica when she visited Mawson in 1961. Mac. Robertson Land is the portion of Antarctica lying southward of the coast between William Scoresby Bay and Cape Darnley. In the east, Mac. Robertson Land includes the Prince Charles Mountains. It was named by the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) (1929-1931), under Sir Douglas Mawson, after Sir Macpherson Robertson of Melbourne, a patron of the expedition. Sir Macpherson Robertson had financed the joint British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition 1929-1931, which was led by the famous explorer Douglas Mawson. Mac. Robertson Land was named in his honour, and in 1932 Robertson received his knighthood for his philanthropic works, specific mention being given for his support of this expedition.
