Mawson with five of his men

Group of six men including Douglas Mawson, seated front centre.

The other five men are all members of Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1914. Back row, left to right: Percy Correll, Cecil Madigan, Frank Bickerton. Front row: A J (Bob) Hodgeman, Mawson and Morton Moyes.

The photograph is most likely to have been taken in 1911 prior to the departure of the expedition. All the men in this photo were South Australian with the exception of Frank Bickerton, who was British. Bickerton was the expedition's mechanical engineer and was responsible for the aeroplane (air tractor) and the wireless equipment. Both of these were innovative with Mawson pioneering their use in the Antarctic. The wireless was more successful than the aeroplane which was converted to an air tractor for pulling sledges after an accident in Adelaide damaged it for its primary purpose of flight. In addition to his mechanical duties Bickerton would lead the Western Sledging party. This explored some 160 miles (approximately 260 kilometres) of coastline and retrieved the first meteorite discovered in Antarctica.

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 guages 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 an exposed peak rising above the snow and ice field, and is a highly visible landmark.)

A J (Bob) Hodgeman was the expedition's cartographer and an artist. He was also an architect and had designed the expedition's huts and oversaw their erection. He was a member of the Near Eastern party which surveyed the coast between the main base at Cape Denison and the Mertz Glacier Tongue.

Morton Moyes 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 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.

Cecil Madigan had his Rhodes Scholarship deferred so that he could join Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition as meteorologist. In addition to these duties, Madigan led a sledging expedition, the Eastern Journey, which examined and surveyed the coast of Adelie Land. Some 400 kilometres of coast was surveyed. Madigan Nunatak, east of the base and a prominent landmark, was named after him.

Madigan, Bickerton and Hodgeman were three of the men who agreed to stay in Adelie Land into a second year to search for Mawson's missing party. In the event they were not needed as Mawson managed to reach the base unaided, with his tragic tale of the loss of Mertz and Ninnis. The ship Aurora, however, was unable to get back to collect them and so a second enforced winter in the Antarctic followed anyway.

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