Mawson and Amundsen in Hobart: issues in the making of an Antarctic gateway

This paper examines some aspects of the growth of Hobart as an Antarctic gateway. Indigenous Tasmanians used the sheltered waterways of the Derwent Estuary as a base for maritime journeys into Storm Bay and beyond. After European colonisation of Tasmania (1803), the creation of Hobart as a major port for Antarctic and Southern Ocean exploration was then slowly built across more than a century of development. From the early nineteenth century, to the years before World War I, sealing and whaling vessels entered the Southern Ocean and some began to focus on the exploration of Antarctica. However, despite these many visits – including Douglas Mawson‘s Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–1914) and Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian Antarctic Expedition (1910–1912) – the port of Hobart was not fully established as a significant hub for Antarctic exploration and science until well after the “Heroic Era” and the Australian Government had decided to establish scientific bases on the southern continent. This paper contributes to the discussion of the historical growth of Antarctic-focused port cities.