Three of Mawson's men

The article refers to Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition which had returned the previous month bringing most of the expedition members back to Australia. Mawson, Cecil Madigan and four other men still remained in Antarctica. The article then gives brief details, with photographs, of Percy Correll, Alexander Kennedy and Morton Moyes, South Australian men who had returned from the expedition.

Percy Correll joined Mawson's expedition as a mechanic and assistant physicist. He turned his hand to anything however: equipped with a lathe and other essential equipment he made constant repairs to instruments including tide gauges and the sledges. He later assisted Frank Hurley with the photography. Early in the expedition Correll was the first and last of the men to voluntarily attempt a swim in the waters of Cape Denison. He accompanied Cecil Madigan and Archibald McLean on the Eastern Sledging journey. Correll Nunatak is named after him. (A nunatak is a peak which emerges above the snow and ice field, and makes a significant landmark in a white landscape.)

Alexander Kennedy served with Frank Wild at the Western Base. This base was established on the Shackleton Ice Shelf as time and ice conditions had prevented Captain Davis carrying Wild's party any further to the west. Kennedy was the party's magnetician and cartographer and his duties entailed a great deal of night work. He also had to establish his equipment in an igloo to avoid contact with anything metallic which would influence the readings obtained from them. He later served with Mawson on the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) as a cartographer.

Morton Moyes also served with Frank Wild's Western party, working as the meteorologist. Most notably he endured nine weeks alone at the base as the rest of the party were exploring in two parties. This experience did not prevent him from returning to Antarctic work: he joined John King Davis in the rescue of Shackleton's Ross Sea party in 1916 and later worked with Mawson on the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) in 1929. Away from the Antarctic Moyes was a navigation instructor with the Royal Australian Navy.

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

Buy a high resolution copy.