Mawson's Huts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article discusses the heritage Antarctic site. For the Alpine Australian hut, see Mawsons Hut (Australia)

Mawson's Hut, Antarctica
National Park	Antarctica
State	Australian Antarctic Territory, Australia
GPS Reference	Unknown
Built in	1911
Built for	Scientific Outpost/Exploration
Maintained By	Mawson's Huts Foundation
Access By	Sea

Mawson's Huts are a collection of buildings located at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay, in the far eastern sector of the Australian Antarctic Territory. The buildings were built and occupied by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) of 1911-1914, led by geologist and explorer Sir Douglas Mawson.

Mawson's Huts are of national and international heritage significance. They are rare in a world context as one of just six survivings sites from the golden age of Antarctic exploration. The early 1900s was a period of great human adventure, exploration, research and discovery on Antarctica.

The huts included a magnetograph hut, used to measure variations in the south magnetic pole; an absolute magnetic hut, which was used as a reference point for studies in the magnetograph hut; and the transit hut, an astronomical observatory.

The most important building at the site is the winter living quarters, known as Mawson's Hut. This pyramid-roofed hut was home to the eighteen men of the AAE main base party, including Douglas Mawson. The hut was prefabricated in Sydney and shipped to the site for construction in 1912 by the AAE team.

Expeditions to the site undertaken by the Mawson's Huts Foundation between 1997 and 2005 have carried out repair work on the huts.