Antarctica or, The race to the South Pole ...

Players can start from Tasmania, New Zealand, South America, South Africa or Madagascar and race to be the first to reach the South Pole.

This board game featuring Antarctica was published very early in the 20th century as it shows the discovery of King Edward VII Land, which was discovered by Scott in 1901. The game was probably issued to take advantage of the interest shown in the continent at that time with the expeditions of Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Douglas Mawson.

The continent is poorly defined as there were still large stretches of coastline that were undiscovered. There are also a number of illustrations on the board which perhaps reflect the lack of accurate information about the continent, or are an attempt at humour: these include the polar bear near South America, the walrus sitting on the continent and the ice cream and hot dog stands.

National Games of Ballarat produced a wide range of games: some traditional such as Snakes and Ladders, and Ludo, and others that used topical themes such as Antarctica, World War I, Boer War and popular activities such as cycling and motoring. The design of the boards was always bright and attractive and in many instances the games were often re-issued with updated designs as cars and clothing changed. In this way the game had fresh appeal to the next generation of players.

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.