British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition

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Activities in Antarctica During the 20th Century
International agreements
International Polar Year (1932–33) International Geophysical Year (1957–58) Antarctic Treaty System (1959)
British Commonwealth activities
Scott's 1st expedition (1901–04)
Shackleton's 1st expedition (1907–09)
Scott's 2nd expedition (1910–13)
Mawson's 1st expedition (1911–1914)
Shackleton's 2nd expedition (1914–17)
Shackleton's 3rd expedition (1921–22)
Mawson's 2nd expedition (1929–31)
The Graham Land Expedition (1934–37)
Operation Tabarin (1943–45)
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs-Hillary 1955–58)
French activities
Charcot's 1st expedition (1903–05)
Charcot's 2nd expedition (1908–10)
German activities
Drygalski's expedition (1901–03)
Filchner's expedition (1911–12)
The New Swabia Expedition (1938–39)
Norwegian activity
Amundsen's expedition (1910–12)
U.S. activities
Byrd's first expedition (1928–30)
Operation Highjump (1946–47)
Operation Windmill (1947–48)
Ronne's expedition (1947–48)
Operation Deep Freeze (1955–56)

The British Australian (and) New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) was a research expedition into Antarctica between 1929 and 1931, involving two voyages over consecutive Austral summers. It was a British Commonwealth initiative, driven more by geopolitics than science, and funded by the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

The leader of the BANZARE was Sir Douglas Mawson and there were several subcommanders (Captain K.N. MacKenzie, who replaced Captain John King Davis for the second summer) onboard the RRS Discovery, the ship previously used by Robert Falcon Scott. The BANZARE, which also made several short flights in a small plane, mapped the coastline of Antarctica and discovered Mac Robertson Land and Princess Elizabeth Land (which later became incorporated into the Australian Antarctic Territory).

The voyages primarily comprised an 'acquisitive exploratory expedition' (Collis, 2004:4), with Mawson making proclamations of British sovereignty over Antarctic lands at each of their five landfalls—on the understanding that the territory would later be handed to Australia (as it was in 1933). One such proclamation was made on January 5, 1931 at Cape Denison, the site which Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition had occupied in 1912–13.

The BANZARE was also a scientific quest, producing thirteen volumes of reports—on geology, oceanography, meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, zoology and botany—between 1937 and 1975 (see Price, 1962).

[edit] References

B.A.N.Z. Antarctic Research Expedition 1929–1931 Reports (1937–1975), Adelaide: BANZAR Expedition Committee & Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research, University of Adelaide.
Collis, Christy (2004) The Proclamation Island Moment: Making Antarctica Australian. Law Text Culture 8:1–18.
Price, A. Grenfell (1962) The Winning of Australian Antarctica: Mawson's BANZARE voyages, 1929–31: based on the Mawson Papers, Sydney: Angus & Robertson.