Spinning Yarn:
The 100 Years' Auction
 To upkeep the historic site at Cape Denison takes an enormous
amount of funding and effort. All team members, specialists in their fields, working in a 6 weeks window, have to take all their food,
materials, equipment with them, and when the season is finished, take the leftovers back north with them,
leaving the area clear, clean and unspoiled. All this is about $600,000 each season. The Auction formed one of
the main fundraising avenues at the dinner.
The items on offer for auction included paintings, drawings, books and other items – a bottle of
special vintage port – 10 items in all. But out there on the display table, one item stood out
and stood alone – unlike any of the other items on offer.
The Balaclava
 Handspun on
site at Cape Denison, using Australian Corriedale wooltop, plied on the Southern Ocean, Skeined and
washed in New Zealand, knitted in Australia by a Canadian person (Marion), using a photo supplied by the
Mawson family as the basis for the pattern, the replica balaclava, being worn by the felted model head and
sitting on its Hand-crafted shoulder stand, was – as Sir Douglas Mawson’s great granddaughter, Emma McEwin
remarked - a Gift from the Heart.
The Balaclava – in its blue colour with its “tired” face, was bid on and purchased by Robert, a
gentleman who was leaving for Cape Denison on the Orion that night. He wanted to WEAR IT at the Huts, it the exact
spot where I spun the yarn! God's blessing continues!
What a photo that will be!
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