Postcard sent from Macquarie Island

Australasian Antarctic Expedition postcard of S.Y. Aurora sent by 'Bob H.' [Alfred James Hodgeman] to J C B Norton, Woodville and posted from Macquarie Island.

Hodgeman's message is brief, but he wishes his friend a Merry Christmas and notes that he is having a good time, despite a rough passage from Hobart. The special postal cancellation, designed for expedition mail from Macquarie Island, clearly shows a penguin and the words 'Loose ship's letters posted at Macquarie Island S.Y. [Steam Yacht] Aurora'. The front face of the postcard is a photo of the Aurora.

A J Hodgeman was the expedition's cartographer and an artist. He was also an architect and designed the expedition's huts and oversaw their erection.

The Australasian Antarctic Expedition left Hobart on 2 December 1911. Aurora was heavily overloaded and two days out from Hobart a gale force southerly and the heavy seas it generated destroyed half the bridge. Macquarie Island was reached on 11 December. Toroa, a small steamer which had carried some of the expedition's supplies and staff to the island, returned from there with the mail.

Mawson and the men of the main expedition stayed on the island for two weeks and assisted with the erection of living quarters and the masts for the wireless. It was planned that the base would function as a relay for wireless messages from the main base in Antarctica as well as conducting scientific studies of the island. George Ainsworth was the station leader and there were four other men. Aurora left to continue the voyage south to establish a base on the Antarctic continent.

Mawson had bought Aurora for 6,000 pounds. Built in Dundee in 1876 for the Newfoundland whaling fleet and with a capacity of 600 tons gross, she was equipped with compound engines of 98 horsepower and was square rigged on the foremast and schooner rigged on the main and mizzen masts. Mawson sold her after the expedition to Ernest Shackleton for 3,200 pounds.

After his return to Australia from the Australasian Antarctic Expedition Mawson began lobbying to have Macquarie Island declared a wildlife sanctuary. This was realised in 1933 and its status was upgraded several times during the latter half of the 20th century, until it was named a World Heritage Area in 1998.

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