Douglas Mawson
Sir Douglas Mawson was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer, and academic. He is known for being a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Shackleton. However most of his geological work was undertaken in South Australia, in particular the Precambrian rocks of the Flinders Ranges.
Mawson was born in England and was brought to Australia as an infant. He completed degrees in mining engineering and geology at the University of Sydney, after which he was appointed lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1906. From 1903 onwards he undertook significant geological exploration, including an expedition to the New Hebrides in 1903, and later in the Flinders Ranges and far north-east of South Australia and over the border near Broken Hill in New South Wales. He was interested in the commercial applications of geology, in particular the radioactive minerals being used in medical applications in the early 1900s. He identified and first described the mineral davidite in 1906, and later became an expert in the geochemistry of igneous and metamorphic rocks. Much of his later work was focused on the Precambrian rocks Adelaide Superbasin, where there are significant fossil beds showing the beginnings of animal life on Earth.
Mawson's first experience in the Antarctic came as a member of Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition, alongside his geologist lecturer and mentor Edgeworth David. They were part of a group which became the first to climb Mount Erebus in March 1908. Mawson, David, and Alistair Mackay formed the expedition's northern party, which later, setting off in October 1908, became the first people to attain the South magnetic pole. After his participation in Shackleton's expedition, Mawson became the principal instigator and leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. 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 in 1912–3, which travelled across the Mertz and Ninnis Glaciers, named after his two deceased companions. Their deaths forced him to travel alone for over a month to return to the expedition's main base, which became known as Mawson's Huts. Mawson's account of the expedition was published in 1915 as The Home of the Blizzard.
Mawson was knighted in 1914, and during the second half of World War I worked as a non-combatant with the British and Russian militaries. He returned to the University of Adelaide in 1919 and became a full professor in 1921, contributing much to Australian geology.
He returned to the Antarctic as the leader of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, which led to a territorial claim in the form of the Australian Antarctic Territory. The two long summer voyages were also noteworthy for the major oceanographic as well as terrestrial collections.
Mawson is commemorated by numerous landmarks, and from 1984 to 1996 appeared on the Australian $100 note.
Early life and education
Douglas Mawson was born on 5 May 1882, the second son of Robert Ellis Mawson and Margaret Ann Moore. He was born in Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire, but was under the age of two when his family emigrated to Australia and settled at Rooty Hill, now in the western suburbs of Sydney. Elder brother William was around two years older.In 1893 the family moved to the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe, where they lived in a double-storey Victorian house at 28 Toxteth Road. The home was nominated for a Blue Plaque in 2021. Douglas first attended Plumpton Public School in Plumpton, an outer western suburb of Sydney, along with his brother William. They both attended Forest Lodge Superior Public School in Glebe, and then Fort Street Model School in Observatory Hill, Sydney, both graduating in 1898, despite the age difference. It was at Fort Street that Mawson developed his interest in geology.
He entered the University of Sydney in March 1899, aged just 16, the same year as his brother. Douglas enrolled in a degree in mining engineering. His studies covered a number of subjects over the three-year degree, obtaining first class honours in geology and mineralogy in his second year, and winning a prize in petrology. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mining and metallurgy on 19 April 1902 with second-class honours. Even before graduating, he was appointed as a junior demonstrator in chemistry, with the approval of chemistry professor Archibald Liversidge, and with geologist Edgeworth David as his referee. Both men became major influences in his geological career.
He returned to study at Sydney University in 1904, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree with first-class honours in geology and mineralogy on 6 May 1905. By the time he graduated, he had already completed fieldwork for two papers, first in Mittagong, New South Wales, and then the New Hebrides.
In 1909, Mawson was awarded a Doctor of Science degree at the University of Adelaide, for his thesis about the geology of the Barrier Ranges, in the Olary area in South Australia and over the border in New South Wales.
Career
Early work
In 1903 Mawson published a geological paper on Mittagong, New South Wales, with fellow science student and friend Thomas Griffith Taylor, based on joint field trips done over the course of around 18 months, and building on data created by the Geological Survey of New South Wales. Their study focused on igneous rocks, in particular their chemical composition. The paper was read at the Royal Society of New South Wales in October 1903 by Edgeworth David.File:Neue Hebriden 140543a.jpg|thumb|A 1905 map of the New Hebrides; "Sandwich" is Efate
Mawson's first major independent geological work occurred when he was appointed geologist by Edgeworth David to an expedition to the New Hebrides from April to September 1903. He travelled there with medical student W. T. Quaife, who acted as the expedition's biologist, aboard the Ysabel, under the auspices of the British Deputy Commissioner of the New Hebrides, Captain Ernest Rason. HMS Archer was also used on the trip. The South Australian Museum holds many of Mawson's original field notes and some photographs from this trip, as well as a bibliography compiled by Mawson before setting out. The first results of the expedition were presented on 11 January 1904 at a meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science in Dunedin on Mawson's behalf by David, who was then president of the AAAS. Mawson's more detailed report, "The Geology of the New Hebrides", published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in December 1905, was one of the first major geological works of Melanesia. The report included geological maps of the islands of Efate and Santo.
In 1904, Mawson and chemist/physicist T. H. Laby were the first to identify radium-bearing ore in Australia, in samples of monazite collected from the Pilbara in Western Australia. They also examined other samples collected from across New South Wales, including the Barrier Ranges, not far from Olary, South Australia, where uranium was identified a couple of years later. Mawson built an electroscope based on the design of C. T. R. Wilson in Sydney University engineering laboratory to test samples from their field trips. Professor Edgeworth David made the formal presentation of their paper describing their findings to the Royal Society of New South Wales on 5 October 1904 on the men's behalf.
In 1905 Mawson became a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide. During this time, thanks to the free rail pass given to him by the government for the purpose of geological research, he travelled by train around the state of South Australia. By 1907, he had been to Kangaroo Island, the Flinders Ranges, to the southern tips of the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas, as well as an area between the small town in the far east of SA, Olary, and Broken Hill, over the border in New South Wales. He explored the Olary-Broken Hill area on horseback and by motorbike. He also accompanied groups of students on field trips, and had to plan transport and provisions for hot days and some very cold nights in the desert. He wrote extensive diaries detailing his trips in the semi-arid areas, which have been transcribed by volunteers at the South Australian Museum. In 1906, Government Geologist H. Y. L. Brown concluded that Mawson was undertaking commercial activities in conjunction with his academic activities at Elder's Rock, and withdrew his rail pass for a while.
Mawson was always interested in commercial applications of geology. After the discovery of uranium materials at near Olary, a "uranium rush" followed, in order to extract the mineral for commercial applications, at that time. Commercial interest in uranium rose after Marie Curie's research and the application of radioactivity in medicine. Mawson exhibited a collection of radioactive minerals, including carnotite from Olary, at a meeting of the Royal Society of South Australia on 7 August 1906. On 4 September of that year, Mawson identified and first described the mineral davidite, which contains titanium and uranium, at the Olary site, which he named Radium Hill. The site was developed by the Radium Hill Company, but closed in 1914 with the start of World War I. Mawson maintained an interest in Radium Hill throughout his life, in particular davidite. It was the first major find of radioactive ore in Australia.
After pastoralist and prospector W. B. Greenwood sent rocks that he had found near Mount Painter, in the northern Flinders Ranges, in October/November 1910 for analysis, Mawson identified the mineral torbernite, a secondary mineral that occurs in uranium-bearing rocks. Greenwood had previously sent samples to the government in 1899, a year after radium had been discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in France. However, government geologist Henry Y. L. Brown was away on leave when the specimens arrived, and they subsequently went missing. After Greenwood sent more samples in 1910, Brown was dismissive of their value, but Mawson, having recently visited Marie Curie in Paris, and been urged to look for radium, thought the samples were worth analysis. He used a gold-leaf electroscope given to him by Curie for the purpose. Mawson visited the area and wrote a report which was published in newspapers in late November 1910. His diary of his trip to Mount Painter and Mount Gee dated October 1910 shows that his expedition members included the "well-known prospector still in the Govt Service" Harry Fabian, who met him at Mt Serle with camels; W. B. Greenwood; his son Gordon Arthur "Smiler" Greenwood; and H. Y. L. Brown. The group travelled to Mt Painter, and visited a number of sites, including the Mount Rose Mine, Mueller Hill, Yankaninna, and the Wheal Turner Mine. In his overview written on the back of the diary, Mawson notes a number of different types of rock of the Cambrian and Precambrian before describing the torbanite, carnotite, and uranium, as possibly "the most extensive uraniferous lode formation in the world". They also looked at corundum at Yudnamutana as well as a much larger strike of the same mineral on Mount Painter, which "may turn out enormous", and studied the rocks at Mt Gee and Radium Ridge. Mawson took numerous photographs of the sites and expedition members.
Mawson became involved in the establishment of a development company, the Radium Extraction Company of South Australia Ltd. He was optimistic about the value of the mine, but sold his shares in the company in 1911 in order to help finance the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, and in 1917 the company was liquidated after not achieving success. Mawson maintained a lifelong interest in uranium, which included the publication of a paper on uranium deposits in South Australia in 1944.
File:Archaeocyathan limestone 18.jpg|thumb|Archaeocyathan limestone at the Ajax Copper Mine
In March 1906, he wrote his first report on the geology of South Australia, and specifically of the Flinders Ranges, which he later revisited many times. The short handwritten report was submitted to the state government in March 1906, based on his first visit to the Flinders Ranges with Walter Howchin and Thomas Griffith Taylor in February 1906. It was titled "Notes on the Geological Features of the Beltana District", and was not published until 2007. It described the geology of the area around Beltana, and the abandoned Ajax Copper Mine, located near Puttapa, a pastoral lease around north of Beltana. Mawson's report is a technical description of the mine and its activity, and also discusses the geology of the copper mineralisation and its relationship with the limestone bearing the Archaeocyatha fossils. The report shows his abiding interest in the Cambrian right from the beginning of his career. He later returned to do major research on the Cambrian in the Flinders, building on Howchin's work, publishing important papers in the 1930s.
Also in 1906, while in Adelaide, he published a substantial and detailed study focused on the syenites of the Bowral Quarries in New South Wales. This was a follow-up to his earlier work with Taylor at Mittagong. In January 1907, Mawson was responsible for organising the geological section of a meeting of the AAAS in Adelaide, and presented a paper about the Barrier Ranges, near Broken Hill. As part of the conference, as reported by Howchin, Mawson participated, along with Howchin, T. Griffith Taylor, Walter Woolnough, and 16 others, in a five-day excursion dubbed "Scientific Trip of Governor Macquarie to Spencer Gulf". The ship visited Kangaroo Island as well as Neptune, Williams, and Thistle Islands, proceeded to Port Lincoln and then returned to Port Adelaide after stopping off at Wedge Island. Later that year, Mawson visited the Australian Alps with T. Griffith Taylor and W.T. Quaife, who had accompanied him on his New Hebridean expedition two years prior.
Mawson's early work shows two major interests: an academic interest in ancient glacial rocks, and the commercial possibilities of mining certain minerals. The focus of his early geological work was the Precambrian rocks of the Barrier Ranges, which run from the northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia northwards through Broken Hill. There are several types of rock along the ranges, with varying degrees of mineralisation. He identified two groups: an older Archaean Series, and a newer, Proterozoic Series. His work in this area was reported in his 1909 D.Sc. thesis, and he subsequently published "Geological investigations in the Broken Hill area", in 1912, co-authored by English geologist Walter Howchin. His work on the glacial sediments of the Precambrian Age in SA and around Broken Hill led him to want to investigate the glaciers of Antarctica, and his later trips there, studying how they move and deposit sediment, increased his understanding of how the rocks formed in SA millions of years earlier.
Until 1913 he was largely occupied with Antarctic expeditions, and only returned to geological research in Australia in 1922. He did complete his doctorate after returning from Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition and completing his studies in the Broken Hill area, and was awarded a D.Sc. at the University of Adelaide in 1909 for his thesis about the geology of the Barrier Ranges.