Antarctica Exploration: “Who Goes There?” "Spinning Yarn"

The continent of Antarctica has always been associated with exploration, first trying to find it, then trying to explore it and its features. Most of the early diaries and tales of Antarctica exploration are filled with stories of how the weather was man's biggest enemy on the continent. Spinning yarn there was not on the agenda!

With its ideal location as a staging post for Antarctic voyagers, Hobart, Tasmania's capital city, has had connections to Antarctica exploration since 1773. Byrd's explorations had science as a major objective and pioneered the use of aircraft on the continent. The 1890s also marked the beginning of a period of extensive Antarctica exploration, during which 16 exploring expeditions from nine countries visited the continent.

Early expeditions during the "Heroic Age of Antarctica Exploration" (1895-1922) recognized the phenomenal value of Antarctica as a scientific resource. The whaling stations were popular launching points for the many expeditions, and both Grytviken and Stromness were crucial to Shackleton's Endurance expedition.

The first Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–14), which aimed to undertake science and exploration, saw Douglas Mawson establish his base at Commonwealth Bay. The Hut site is unique amongst those associated with early Antarctica exploration, because the majority of the portable artifacts outside the huts are still in essentially the same locations they were in when Mawson left the site in 1914. (The portable artifacts did not include a wheel for spinning yarn).

Because of Antarctica's importance to science, 43 member countries of the Antarctic Treaty agreed, in 1991, to ban all mining and oil exploration for 50 years, preserving this unusual continent for science.

Access now is much easier than it was in the days of early Antarctica exploration – and spinning yarn in this environment is one new thing to try - but still the southern continent, with no permanent human population, remains untamed.