June 8, 2025 • 54 mins
Douglas Mawson wasn’t just a survivor—he was a scientific powerhouse who helped put Australia on the map of polar exploration. His adventures began with the 1907–1909 Nimrod Expedition under Ernest Shackleton, during which he became one of the first to reach the Magnetic South Pole and climb Mount Erebus. But it was his own Australasian Antarctic Expedition from 1911 to 1914 that sealed his place in history.
Mawson’s leadership, grit, and heartbreak defined that journey. Stranded alone after the deaths of his companions, he hauled himself across 160 kilometres of ice, surviving crevasses, starvation, and the brutal cold. His story isn't just about endurance—it's about the pursuit of knowledge at the edge of the world.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the trials, triumphs, and enduring legacy of Douglas Mawson—Australia’s Antarctic hero.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
Mawson’s leadership, grit, and heartbreak defined that journey. Stranded alone after the deaths of his companions, he hauled himself across 160 kilometres of ice, surviving crevasses, starvation, and the brutal cold. His story isn't just about endurance—it's about the pursuit of knowledge at the edge of the world.
Join Holly & Matthew as they explore the trials, triumphs, and enduring legacy of Douglas Mawson—Australia’s Antarctic hero.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/weird-crap-in-australia--2968350/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with a tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy a Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words docky, terrifying, mesmerizing. That's the way
a number of Australians have described the alleged encounter with
the Yowi.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crap In Australia podcast. Welcome
to the week Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host,
Matthew sol This is episode three hundred and sixty six.
Joining me for another riveting tale of adventure an Arctic conquest.
(00:54):
Is the one and only researcher extraordinaire Holy Soul.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Who was working in something like minus two degrees this morning.
So I felt a little bit like Mawson.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I'm sure Mawson would have considered it quite warm Comparatively, Holly.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hey Man, I got to the point, I was wearing
two pairs of fingers gloves, like, that's super cold to me.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Dear ads, thanks, It's gonna get much colder here in Canberra.
We have now hit our minus one minus two degree mornings.
Of course, it's going to get a lot colder a
lot sooner. And of course, if you're listening from Canada
as well, we are thinking about you guys as you're
going through some terrible wildfires up there, Crustus. As Australians,
we know exactly how you feel. All right, Home to
(01:33):
delve back into it, just a quick recap though. Our
first two episodes cover Mawson's first adventure when he was
recruited by the man Shackleton. Now this upcoming adventure is
Mawson onto himself. He showed quite a lot of promise
as a leader in the previous episode. And would you say,
Holly that the two previous episodes are the reason he's
(01:55):
on one hundred dollars bill or this episode or a
combination of both.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's going to be oh no, I think, oh no.
See that's that's difficult because to me, neither expedition actually
gave him enough to be one hundred.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Dollars bill combination.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But at the same time there were people who did more.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So why out I suppose we always reward the intrepid
adventurer the first game, you know, and not to forget
as well. He wasn't just an adventurer, He wasn't just
an explorer. He was also a scientist and conducted quite
a lot of research. So I think it's a combination
of those three factors, plus the fact that he went
(02:34):
to Antarctica twice.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, no one else is that dumb and crazy? Stupid?
Keep going. By mid December nineteen eleven, the Aurora had
cleared the southern Seas and pressed into the pack ice.
The ship, refitted for the journey, but still far from
an icebreaker, navigated through crushing ice fields and long stretches
of blackwater. The decks lay it in frost, their destination
one of the last truly blank spaces left on the map.
(02:59):
This was a coastline no one had mapped, no one
had walked, and no one had even seen. Keep in mind,
this is nineteen eleven and World War II. We'll start
in three years time. The main party arrived in Commonwealth
Bay on January eighth, nineteen twelve. The men rowed ashore
in lifeboats with their gear battling catabaltic winds, which are
(03:19):
winds that get colder as they blow down from an
elevated position. Think things such as a wind coming down
off a cliff base. They hold down from the polar
plateau like falling buildings, knocking things around. Mawson took a
liking to the location immediately. It was flat enough for
building upon and had good proximity to the plateau because
of the wind blowing debris out to see for the
(03:40):
last ten thousand years. It was in a good position
for inland and coastal work. He decided to establish the
main base there on a rocky headland that they ended
up naming Cape Denison. It was a curse decision. In hindsight.
Cape Denison proved to be one of the windiest places
on Earth. The team recorded regular wind gusts of over
three hundred kilometers an hour. Not once in their two
(04:01):
year occupation did the wind stop entirely. There were only
degrees of battle.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
With regard to climate, in general, Antartica has the lowest
mean temperature and the highest wind velocity of any land existing.
This naturally follows from the fact that it is a
lofty expanse of ice clad land circumscribing the pole, and
that the Antarctic summer occurs when the Earth is farther
from the Sun than is the case during the Arctic summer.
(04:28):
Quote from chapter one, The Problem in Preparations, The Home
of the Blizzard, Douglas Mawson, nineteen fifteen.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Because if you remember from like year eight science class,
cast your mind bread twenty thirty years, the Earth wobbles
like a top, but it wobbles on the bottom. It
doesn't wobble on the top. So basically, if you flip
a top upside down, that's how we wobble.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, he's basically saying that even summer in the South
Pole is preferable to the summer in the North Pole,
as it is far older, right, Starteakers.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Summer in the Antarctic, which is down the bottom, is
colder than summer in the North all.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Right, So basically what they're saying there is that the
winters on the North Pole even more preferable to winters
on the South Pole.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Absolutely. Still, the group got to work. They built the
main hut prefabricated in Hobart and assembled by freezing Hans.
It was crowded.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Okay, they high and ike first flat pack.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I made that joke in the first episode. You didn't
react it. I was very upset.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Oh really yeah, oh sorry about that? And then I
stole it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You did. It was crowded. There were eighteen men, one
stove and barely roomed to sleep without stepping on someone's foot.
Their boots froze, the walls iced over. They braced their
gear down with rope and wire and still ended up
losing tools to the wind. Snow buried everything, yet somehow
it held. They also set up a wireless relay station
(05:59):
on Macquori Island, a base midway between Antarctica and New Zealand,
so that the team stationed at the newly named Commonwealth
Bay co send messages home. It was the first time
a wireless link had ever been established between Antarctica and
the rest of the world. Communications were limited to Morse
code and plagued with interference, but it worked.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
At two this morning, received a faint signal from Delay.
I answered as soon as I could, and also called
him for a considerable time, but he did not hear me.
The only distinguishable words I received were please tell permanent
hills if working. And also the words I cannot call tonight,
I am keeping patient lot conditions are extremely favorable. Quote
(06:40):
from the Argus Saturday, twenty eighth that's come in nineteen twelve,
page eighteen. Call from the Antarctic.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's actually one of the very first transmissions from the Antarctic.
It's I'm ringing tonight to say I can't ring.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Tonight by kind of ironic. Yeah, there's a whole history
if you're ever interested in of strange communications sent at
the early unvent of the so the early advent of
the Ham radio. I think even the Simpsons make fun
of it when I think it's either Bart or Lisa
has a Ham radio, like you don't even use your
(07:15):
Ham radio anymore, and it cuts to someone speaking in
Chinese and it translates to hey have a Ham radio.
There was I think it was a couple of years ago.
Now there was a little girl who managed to use
a Ham radio and she contacted the ISS.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
That's cool. I mean, that's amazing for that range. But
that's good.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
It's really it's not as much as you think. So
I used to be the second operator on my grandfather's
Ham radio and he had a small, leish powered antenna,
we could easily contact, you know, people in Wogga Wogga sometimes. Hey,
it's sort of all depended on the conditions because at
(07:56):
night you get a clearer signal. So that's just because
there's less in appearance. When the sun's up, there's more
electrical interference. I don't know the science behind it, so
we ended up, you know, we could talk to people
in Aubrey Wogga Wogga in Hay and then I mean,
if you've got a direct run straight to the top
and the ISS is sort of overhead or relatively overhead, yeah,
(08:19):
there should be an opportunity to chat with them. For sure.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
That's the start of a horror movie, just people in
the ISS hearing a little girl.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Going hello, or the inverse of like, Hi, I've bought
this ham radio. I'm just contacting the ISS. No help us,
Oh god, it's out, it's out.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Oh please.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You something like that would be a bit of fun.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
If not, if you're in it.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
No, not, if you're in it.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Well, Shackleton had caught a Glory and the South Pole
on his expedition. Mawson's expedition was built for science. They
divided into sub parties, and spent the first year collecting
meteorological data, measuring magnetic fields, dissecting penguins, and charting every
inch of the coast they could reach without being blown
into the ocean.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Our shot mile of rocks still held some geographical secrets,
and there were biological discoveries yet to make. A wireless
telegraph station had at last been established, and we could
confidently expect communication with the outside world at an early date.
These were some of the obvious assurances, which no one
had the heart to think about at first. And then
(09:31):
there was always our comradeship, most enduring of all Chapter
twenty three, Second Winter at the home of the Blizzard
Douglas Mawson in nineteen fifteen.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
By the first spring, Mawson had begun planning the next phase,
sledging journeys across the ice to collect inland data and
explore the surrounding regions. Several parties were formed, each task,
with traveling hundreds of kilometers in various directions, falling sledges
loaded with supplies and scientific instruments. Bitious of these would
be the Eastern Journey, led by Morson himself, the Far
(10:04):
Eastern Party, as he called It consisted of Mawson, a
young British officer named Belgrave, Ninnies, and a Swiss mountaineer
and ski expert named Xavier Mertz. They left Cape Denison
on the tenth of December nineteen twelve, heading east across
the glacier, falling two sledges pulled by huskies. Their plan
was to chart unknown territory, gather geological data, and return
(10:25):
in five or six weeks. They made good time at first.
The ice was rough but manageable, and the dogs performed well.
Mawson took geological readings while Mirths and Ninnies handled the teams.
They covered over four hundred kilometers in the first month,
though terrain through terrain no one had mapped, naming peaks
and valleys as they went. Spirits were high, though the
(10:47):
weather remained cruel. Then came December fourteen. Mertz and Mowson
were traveling ahead of Ninnies, who was managing the rear
sledge with one carrying most of the foot Sorry I apologize.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
In the two occurring Characters and last podcast on the left,
two obnoxious sisters called Ninny and Nanny and every time
you say Unfortunately and it's a Henry Sabowski impression as well.
I'm nanny, I'm nanny. It's it's sort of interesting how
(11:20):
names disappear from the parlance eventually, don't they. Because you
think of an Aline is not one that we mentioned earlier,
that's one that's definitely disappeared. And then yeah, Minnie and Belgrave.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You don't see anyone called Belgrave now.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah. Yeah. But it's like it's almost because I think
maybe things like mini Mouse, I suppose that they become cliche.
It's like all those poor little bastards who were born
with the name Kalisi, who will be perpetually embarrassed for
most of their lives.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
They're changing their name just as soon as Again.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
I don't think you should name your kids after pop culture.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Unless there's something innocuous like Bruce or Pluck or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, like an actual name. Diana is another
one I think, yeah, in that respect that you really
shouldn't do it. There was a stand up comedian I
was watching her bit and she had a very very
exotic sounding name, and she's like, you know, people struggle
with my name, and they immediately start to feel like
they're secondhand racist, and I have to explain to them
(12:23):
that I was actually named after a Klingon from Star
Trek because my parents were nerds. You know what I mean?
You you just don't do it. Don't do it. It's
never going to be a good idea.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's cute when they're younger, it's not so cute when
they get older.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, I mean, what does my name mean? It means mothering,
no bad, bad parents.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Ninnis was managing the rear sledge, the one carrying most
of the food, the tent, the better gear, and six
of the strongest dogs. I bet you can't tell where
this is going.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I am assuming that something is going to give way.
The dogs, the sled, and the man are all going
to disappear into the abyss, or an alien parasite infects
one of the dogs, and then it goes back to
the station. And then there's like this whole thing where
they suspect each other and then they use fire to
test each other's blood.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Either way, it's a horror story.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, either way, you fucked, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
The snow was deceptive that day, forming a delicate crust
over hidden prevasses. Mowson crossed one without incident, Mertz followed.
When they look back the Ninnies, he was gone. The sledge,
the dogs, and Ninnis had fallen through a hidden crevasse.
There was no sound, just absence.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Ninnis, who was walking along by the side of his
sledge close behind my own, heard the warning from my
backward clean so I noticed that he immediately swung the
leading dogs so as to cross the cavass squarely instead
of diagonally, as I had done. Then I went on
with my work. There was no sound from behind, except
(13:59):
faint plaintive wine from one of the dogs, which I imagine
was in reply to a touch from Ninni's whip. I
remember addressing myself to George, the laziest dog in my
own team, saying, you will be getting a little of
that too, George, if you're not careful. When I looked
back was in response to the anxious gaze of Mertz,
who had turned round and halted in his tracks behind me.
(14:24):
Nothing met the eye but my own sledge tracks running
back in the distance. Where were Ninnies and his sledge.
I paced him back along the trail, thinking that a
rise in the ground obscured the view. There was no
such good fortune, however, for I came to a gaping
hole in the surface about eleven feet walk. The lead
(14:46):
of a crevasse had broken in. Two sledge tracks led
up to it on the far side, but only one
continued on the other side. Frantically waving to Mertz to
bring up my sledge, upon which there was some alpine row,
I leaned over and shouted into the dark depths below.
No sound came back, the moaning of a dog caught
(15:07):
on a shelf just visible one hundred and fifty feet below.
The poor creature appeared to have broken its back, for
it was attempting to sit up with the front part
of its body while the hinder portion lay limp. Another
dog lay motionless by its side. Close by was what
appeared in the gloom to be the remains of the
tent and a canvas tank containing food for three men
(15:29):
for a fortnight. We broke back the edge of the
nav lid, took turns leaning over, leaning over, secured by
a rope, calling into the darkness in the hope that
our companion might still be alive. For three hours we
called unceasingly, but no answering sound came back. The dog
had ceased to moan and lay without a movement. A
(15:52):
chill draft was blowing out of the abyss. We felt
that there was little hope. Why had the first sledge
as escape the crevasse. It seemed that I had been
fortunate because my sledge should cross diagonally with a greater
chance of breaking the snow lid. The sledges were within
thirty pounds of the same weight. The explanation appeared to
(16:14):
be that Ninnie had walked by the side of his sledge,
where as I had crossed it sitting on the sledge.
The whole weight of a man's body bearing on his foot,
it's a formidable load, and no doubt was sufficient to
smash the up of the roof. Quote from Home of
the Blizzard A. Douglas Morrison at nineteen fifteen, page one
hundred and fifty seven. So there goes their food, and
(16:37):
there goes their shelter and half of the dogs.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Mawson and Mertz eventually made camp felt was little more
than a trench dug into the snow. Their food was
nearly gone. There were over five hundred kilometers from base
with no shelter, no dog food, and no spare clothes.
Only their sledge remained behind with six dogs, who had
about as much food available as the humans. They had
absolutely no choice. They turned back on the antarctic plateaus.
(17:05):
There's nothing living, nothing that could feed them. In order
to survive, Mowson and Mertz slaughtered and ate the dogs
one by one. Husky meat was tough and fowl, especially
starving dogs and their organs, had to be ration carefully.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Isn't a dog liver also very poisonous? Yes, you have
to be extraordinarily careful. Yes, and I believe that can
be the same of a lot of Antarctic creatures, isn't it.
Don't be Inuits know how, like which parts to eat
and which parts to leave. Think polar bear liver is
especially poisonous as well.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, it's all. It's not so much poisonous as overfilled
with the vitamin that will kill you.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
In over.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The men boiled what they could in a small pot
over a blubber stove. Mowson recorded the meals in his
dairy with scientific detachment.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Liver lights, kidneys, and brains, he wrote, boiled into soup.
At this time we were eating largely of the dog's meat,
to which we added one or two ounces of chocolate
or raisins, three or four ounces of pemmican and biscuit
mixed together, and as a beverage very dilute coco. The
(18:19):
total weight of solid food consumed by each man per
day was approximately fourteen ounces. A small supply of butter
and glaxo was saved for emergency. All a few tea
bags which remained were boiled over over again. Our faithful retainer,
Ginger could walk no longer strapped on the sledge. She
(18:39):
was the last of the dogs and been some sort
of a help till a few days before. Were sad
when it came to finishing her off, on account of
the steep upgrade and the weight of Ginger on the sledge.
We camped at seven to fifteen am, after only four
miles one two hundred thirty yards. We had breakfast off Ginger,
(18:59):
skull and brain. I never forget the occasion. There was
nothing available to divide it. The skull was boiled whole,
then the right and left halves were drawn for by
the old and well established sledging practice of shut eye,
after which we took it in turns heating to the middle,
passing the skull from one to the other. The brain
(19:21):
was afterwards scooped out with a wooden spoon. Quote from
the Home of the Blizzard, Douglas Moulson, nineteen fifteen, page
one hundred and sixty three. And if you wonder how
I can just easily transition from one of those things
to the other, I don't know. Holly is seeing. They're
horrified right now.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Holly had to read this diary.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So it's interesting, though. I think you can maintain a
healthy detachment when it's just words. When you put a
bit of emotion and inflection into it, it changes.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That's why audiobooks become more powerful. Mettz began to decline.
Wrapp his skin peeled time. Mertz his gum bled. He
suffered nausea, weakness, and hallucinations. Mawson tried to support him,
dragging the sledge alone when necessary splitting rations, but Mertz
grew worse by the day. On January eighth, nineteen thirteen,
(20:17):
he died in his sleep. Similar to Burke and Wills
fifty two years before. His death was caused by his food.
Mertz died of a vitamin and E overdose, while Burkes
and Wills died of a vitamin B one deficiency.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Like I said, you got to be careful of those
dog livers. January seventh, up at eight am. It having
been arranged last night that we would go on today
at all costs, sledge sailing with Savior in his bag
on the sledge was a sad blow to me to
find that Mertz was in a weak state and required
helping in and out of his bag, needed rest for
(20:50):
a few hours at least before he could think of traveling.
I ed have to turn in again to kill time,
and also to keep warm, for I feel the cold
very much. At ten am, I get up to dress
Savior and prepare food, but find him in a kind
of fit coming around a few minutes later. He exchanged
a few words and did not seem to realize that
(21:12):
anything had happened. Obviously, we can't go on today. There's
a good day, though the light is bad, the sun
just gleaming through the clouds. It's this terrible. I don't
mind for myself but for others, and pray to God
to help us. I cook some thick cocoa for Xavier
and give him beef tea. It's better afternoon, but very low.
(21:37):
I have to lift him up to drink. During the afternoon,
he had several more fits, and then became delirious and
talked incoherently until midnight, and he appeared to fall off
into a peaceful sumber. So I toggled up the sleeping
bag and retired, worn out into my own After a
couple of hours, having felt no movement from my companion,
(21:58):
I stretched out an arm, found that he was stiff.
My comrade had been accepted into the peace and the pascath,
all understanding. It was my fervent hope that he had
been received where sterling qualities and of high mind reaped
their due reward in his life. We loved him. He
was a man of character, generous, and of noble parts.
(22:23):
For hours I lay in the bag, rolling over in
my mind all that lay behind, and the chances the
future seemed to stand alone on the wide doors of
the world, and watched a short step to enter the
unknown future. Chapter thirteen, Toil and Tribulation, The Home of
(22:43):
the Blizzard, Douglas Mawson, nineteen fifteen, page one hundred and
sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Mawson, now completely alone, wrapped Mertz in his sleeping bag
and buried him in the snow. Then he adjusted the
sledgehness and began walking. Allegisha of cannibalism were leveled at
Morson almost immediately after his return to civilization, but without
Mertzer's body, it can never be proven.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I mean, he was already dead.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You're running out of food and mates already.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Dead, Like I mean, we've discussed cannibalism on the show before.
It's one of the worst survival tactics though, because ultimately
it doesn't really do a lot for you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
What you're missing is what they're missing too.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, So realistically, all you're doing is filling your stomach. Now,
whether he turned around and ate the guy, you know,
he was already dying by what sounds like the you know,
like you said, Holly, the vitamin A overdose from all
the dog liver. So at the end of the day,
it doesn't really matter. He was always going to die.
But yeah, it's just a terribly sad, tragic set of
circumstances that evening. According to his ex edition account, Molson
(23:48):
followed these pants with a duty equally difficult from an
emotional perspective. Burying mertz First, he toggled up to his
friend and his sleeping bag, and then he pulled him
outside the and ate her that he piled snowblocks around
and over him mountain above the arsic grave across fashioned
from that abandoned half of the sledge inside the to him.
(24:10):
He left a waterproof case holding the last camera films
and an old statement what happened or did he? A
couple of years later, while touring the United States, Mawson
was quoted as given a distinctly different story about the
forty eight hours after Murder's death. I thought for two
days about eating Mertz. The New York Evening Globe reported
(24:33):
him saying I was awfully short of food. But I
decided that if I did get back to civilization, would
always leave a bad taste in my mouth. So I
buried him and I went on the next day. Apparently
picking the story up from the New York papers, the
bridge Port Standard from neighboring Connecticut reported that Mowlson had said,
(24:57):
after remaining with the body for two days, thinking what
to do, A finally buried Dr Mertz under an is hammock.
But both of these reports and similar ones were soon
refuted by Mawson. Onto the headline, Mowson had no idea
of turning cannibalistic. Sir Douglas Cole's story that he had
design on dead comrade fiction. The Toronto Daily Star stated,
(25:21):
regarding the dispatch from New York a few days to
the effect that Sir Douglas Mawson said the report was
outrageous and the invention of the New York Reporter. Nevertheless,
the question of whether he engaged in cannibalism as had
occurred in dire circumstances in the Arctic is one that
has persisted. Quote from Racing with Death, Douglas Mawson, Entonic
(25:44):
explorer Bo Riffenberg, two thousand and nine, Bloomsbury, page one
thirty one to one thirty two. That's you know, I
just picked that accent just for the fucking sake of it.
And to see that his name is Bo Ryffinbar it
probably fit.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Probably is.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, enjoying myself a cool drink on this hot summer afternoon.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
My brain was just following you. It moved like from
Texas through New Orleans and not to Connecticut and then
went back to Texas again.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I did the best with what I could. Holly could
use me as some of that delicious asked sweet tea
over there, ma'am. You know I always think.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Of now you sounding like Walter Goggins.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Well, I was about to say, I was thinking of
when I was reading it through. Walter Goggins is in
a couple of shows on ho Max with Danny McBride
and yeah, he's got that, he's got that. Mmmm. Just
testla molasses hanging out of your man. Very sinister, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah. The rumors might have followed him, but they never
actually made it into the Australian newspapers that have been
digitized on Probe, and there's a lot of pre nineteen
fifties newspapers out there.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I think it was a sign of respect for a
lot of explorers who found themselves in similar circumstances, like
what do you want to do? Rub it in their face.
It's not as if they were engaging in cannibalism because
they wanted to.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, that was the Tasmanian bush Rangers.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, there were definitely people that we've discussed who were
down and outright cannibals, and we've talked about them, and
we've talked about the malicious nature of those people. But
in their circumstance and in the circumstances of most people
in these sort of survival situations, you can't really blame
the person for, you know, eating someone else. Look, you know,
(27:37):
if Holly, if we ever find ourselves trapped on a mountain,
I die first, go ahead, eat what you want. I
don't really care. I'm already dead.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
As long as you don't kill me to do it,
it's fine.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, exactly, That's my only thing. Just don't kill me
to do.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It, or if you do, do it while I'm asleep
so I don't feel it. The return journey took thirty
days from the death of Mertz. All of them. He
was walking on his own, with nothing but the wind
and his own exhausted voice for company.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
He was starving, you're fucked up, Got up? Oh you
really done it this time? Got up? Let's sing together.
I hate you, I hate you right back, And they
just go back and forth like that constantly.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Probably I probably would have done that at some point
in time. Thirty days on my own. Yeah, he was starving.
His skin cracked open, his hair fell it. The soles
of his feet separated from the flesh as he walked.
He lashed them back on with cloth and lanoln At
one point he fell into a cravass, himself saved only
by a harness rope. He hung there for a time,
(28:38):
considering whether it would be easier not to climb out.
Then he hauled himself back up and kept going.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I considered clipping out of my harness and just dropping
to end it, but I couldn't see the bottom of
the crevass, and I was afraid I'd simply fall on
some ledge below me and linger in misery with broken bones.
It seemed impossible that I could again muster strength for
that climb. The climb upwards was a struggle of four
(29:07):
enough ackwards, and then afterwards I cooked and ate dog
meat enough to give me a regular orgy. Because of
this harrowing experience, he fashioned a rope ladder and kept
it attached to himself and the sledge in expectation of
similar events. Quote from Mawson A Life Philippares, Melbourne University Press,
(29:27):
nineteen ninety nine, age nineteen and by regular orgy as well,
he means a feast.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, it's nineteen, ends speakers.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
He did out fucked the dogs.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, by then he didn't have a carcass, so it
wouldn't have been a point anyway, Mawson cut weight from
his pack, He burned parts of his own journal for warmth.
He illucinated a companion walking beside him, silent and comforting
day after death.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
A lot of people who find themselves in survival situations
also describe this sort of thing happening. And it's interesting.
I almost think of it like a survival adaptation where
the human consciousness sort of splits and becomes a sort
of a motivating external presence.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Humans don't do well on their You can be as
introverted as you want, but you will still rely on
someone being there. And even if you don't, you're relying
on books or movies or something like that to keep
you entertained, which is other people.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Well, I mean that has to be some of the
inspiration in Star Wars, right, like in the Empire Strikes
Back when Luke Skywalker, you know, fights the Wampa and
the big cave comes out. He's all fucked up, he's dying,
and then Obi Wan Kenobi appears to him as a
force ghost. Like you would have to assume that somewhere
along the line, Lucas read about these people, you know,
(30:51):
being trapped on mountains or being trapped in the Arctic
ways and having those audio visual hallucinations.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I mean, the rest of the stuff he took, so
why not.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
But they're motivating too. Yeah, a lot of people who
have got caught in those situations describe this motivating presence,
you know, keep going like you're nearly there. You're nearly there.
One more step, one more step. And some people when't
they've discussed them, discussed them very fondly, you know, as
if talking about an old friend or a close relative.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It was an asshole, but he got me through that.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, that helped them get get over the air. Like
I think, I remember reading one guy got trapped on
a mountain and it was like his like bad minton
partner from when he was in university, so like the
like he's they always had a rivalry. So he was like, oh, well,
I guess I'm going to win that, aren't I? And
he's like, well fuck you, and kept going, you know,
(31:44):
and it's yeah, it's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
You're surviving through spite of a ghost.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
You will well it. Like I said, it's like in
a it's an adaptation. It's like your conscious separate, your
consciousness separates out a little bit to you know, push
you further because you've got it. Like, when it comes
to human biology, everything is about survival. You know, keep going,
keep going forward, keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. You know,
(32:09):
people live through the most horrendous things because you know
they want to survive, you quite simply.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Like, well, they don't want to survive, but their body
sure as hell does.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, what the human brain will do in those sort
of circumstances is truly incredible. I mean, think about it.
We now have surgeries, right Like, you know, let's say
you end up with stomach cancer. There are people who
have their entire stomachs removed and continue on. You know,
there are people who are literally you know, falling apart.
You know, they've got half a face, one leg, and
(32:42):
no arms, and they continue to keep going. You know,
there is something about the ability for a human to
survive that is truly incredible.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
On February eighth, nineteen thirteen, Mowson staggered back into Keep Dennison.
The men left at base barely recognized him.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I waited to mend one of the crampons and then
started off for the hut, but a blizzard had commenced
to descend the five miles of steep, icy slopes with
my miserable crampons in the weak state in which I
found myself would only have been as a last resort.
So I camped in the comfortable cave and hoped for
better weather than the next day. The high wind, rising
(33:26):
to a hurricane at times, continued for a whole week,
with dense drift until the eighth I spent the long
hours making crampons of a new pattern, eating and sleeping.
Eventually I became so anxious that I used to sit
outside the cave for long spells, watching for a lull
in the wind. At length, I resolved to go down
in the blizzard, sitting on the sledge as long as possible,
(33:49):
blown along by the wind, I was making preparations for
a start when the wind suddenly decreased. My opportunity had come.
In a couple of hours, I was within one mile
and a half of the hut. There was no sign
of the ship lying in the offling, but I comforted them.
But I comforted myself with the thought that you might
still be at the anchorage and have swung in shore
(34:12):
as to stay hidden by the ice cliffs. Or on
the other hand, the Captain Davies might have been along
the coast to the east searching there. But even as
I gazed about seeking for a clue, a speck on
the northwest arise and caught my eye, and my hopes
went down. It looked like a distant ship. It might
as well have been the Aurora. Well, one matter. The
(34:36):
long journey was at an end, A terrible chapter of
my life finished. Then the rocks around winter Quarters began
to come into view. Part of the basin of the
boat harbor appeared and loll there were human figures. They
almost seemed unreal. I was in a dream. But after
a brief moment one of them saw me, waved an arm,
(35:00):
are replied. There was a commotion, and they all ran
towards that art. Then they were lost, for the crest
of the first steep slope hit them. It almost seemed
to me that they had run away to hide. Minutes
passed and I slowly went along the sledge. Then a
head rode over the brow of the hill, and there
(35:21):
was Bickerton, breathless after a long run. I expect he
considered for a while which one of us it was
Quote from Home of the Blizzard Douglas Mawson at page
one seventy six.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Imagine coming over a hill, seeing these tiny figures running
around and then vanishing again. You'd think that you just
imagine that I.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Am not, especially after imagining a ghosts for the last
like two weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Mawson's first question was, is the Aurora still here? It wasn't.
The Aurora, captain by John King Davis, had waited as
long as it could. The ship was due to return
to Hobart before the sea ice closed in for another year.
When Mowson's party failed to return, Davis left a six
man relief team behind and sailed the Aurora. Departed just
(36:11):
five hours before Mawson came into view.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
That's rough.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Much like Birkenwells and their rescue party, who missed their
rescuers by nine hours, Mawson had missed his way home
by less than a day. Unlike Birkenwells, his rescue party
had food.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yes, yes, they weren't left to their own devices. They
actually had survival until the ship could come back. The
captain wouldn't have left the crew there unless he could
come back for them. The Aurora arrived on January thirteen,
or the sledge parties returned to the half by January seventeen,
and with the exception of my party consisting of Lieutenant Ninnis,
(36:49):
Doctor Mertz, and myself. On December four, whilst exploring a
new coastline three hundred miles southeast of our winter quarters,
Ninnis with the one dog team and on all the
food disappeared into an unfathomable ravasse. Merts and I, with
inadequate provisions and six starving dogs, struck out over the
plateau for the Hut, encountering unexpectedly bad weather which retarded
(37:14):
our progress. We sussisted chiefly on the dogs. On January seventeen,
Mertz died from causes arising from our nutrition. On February seventh,
I alone arrived at the hut, having traveled through the
snow and fogs, miraculously guided by providence, through heavily revassed areas.
Captain Davies had waited until it was no longer safe,
(37:37):
and is now proceeding to our western base. He left
a few hours before my arrival at the hut. Six
men are here with me at the Hut who were
left to prosecute a search, namely Madigan Beije McLean, Bickerton
and Jeffreys. The Aurora intended to return from the west
and is expected in a few days when an attempt
(37:58):
will be made to get off, but on account of
heavy winds, we are unlikely to get off. Regular wireless
communication may be expected in the future. Quote from The Argus, Thursday,
the sixth of March nineteen thirteen, page thirteen. Antarctic horrors.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Too weak to protest, Mawson had no choice but to
overwinter an antarcticree, his second full year at Kate Dennison.
The difference here was that he wasn't alone, and he
had been left with plenty of supplies to see him through.
But even as he recovered, he resumed his scientific work.
He wrote reports, he catalog specimens, he reviewed the work
(38:37):
of the other sledging parties, and resumed leadership of the
remaining team. The Aurora returned in December nineteen thirteen and
finally brought Mawson home. He returned to a world that
barely knew what had happened. The death of Scott's entire
expedition had dominated the polar headlines for over a year. Bedson,
the German contribution to the effort, had reached the South Pole.
(39:00):
The public had grown weary of Antarctic hardship, and so
Mawson's remarkable survival was almost ignored. But in scientific circles,
Mawson's name was spoken with quiet awe. He hadn't reached
a poll, he hadn't claimed territory, but he had brought
back something better. He returned with more than five thousand
kilometers of newly mapped pastline, magnetic and meteorological records from
(39:24):
a previously unmeasured sector of the continent, and an unmatched
body of geological work. He brought data that would inform
climate science, mineralogy, and even global magnetic modeling. For Deck's end,
he survived.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
The first real touch of civilization came unexpectedly early on
the morning of February twenty first, a full rigged ship
of a southern horizon. It might have been an iceberg.
The sales flushed so white in the morning sun that
onward ere came with a strong southwester, overhauled and pastus
(39:57):
signaling Archibald Russell, fifty four days out from Buenos Aires,
bound for a Cape order. It was too magical to believe.
On February twenty six, we gazed at distant cliffs of
rock and earth, Kangaroo Island, and the tiny cluster of
dwellings around the lighthouse at Cape Order. Then we entered
(40:18):
Saint Vincent's Gulf on a clear hot tail, marveling at
the sandy blue water, the long flat mainland with its
clumps of trees and smoke of many steamers, the welcome home,
the voices of innumerable strangers, and hand groups of many friends.
The choaxwe cannot be uttered. Quote from Mawson, Home of
(40:41):
the Blizzard, page three hundred and eighty five.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Mawson published The Home of the Blizzard in nineteen fifteen
A long dance, and I will attest to that because
there is a lot of scientific jargon in there, and
sometimes emotionally stark account of the expedition. His tone was reserved,
but not cold. He wrote of mert and ninnies with reverence.
He barely mentioned the hallucinations. The suffering is there in
(41:06):
the subtexts. The facts do the work. In nineteen fifteen.
That same year he was knighted and became Sir Douglasmawson.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
In nineteen fifteen he applied to serve in a scientific
capacity in World War One, and in May nineteen sixteen
he was attached to the British Ministry of Munitions. He
became embarcation Officer for shipments of high explosives and poison
gas from Britain to Russia. Later working for the Russian
Military Commission, he investigated and reported on production in Britain
(41:37):
in order to increase output of high explosives in Russia itself.
After the Revolution, he was transferred to the British staff
of the Commission International Commission of Commission internationally the ravelmnent.
Now that sounded terrible as well, Holly, what's the English
translation please.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Commission of International Commission of Revitalization.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Thank you very much. Concerned with the maintenance of supplies
of high explosives, chemicals, poison gas and petroleum oil products.
He held the military rank of Major. In nineteen twenty
he was appointed obe after the war. Until nineteen twenty three,
he was a committee member of the Australia War Museum,
which is now known as the Australian War Memorial. Vote
(42:20):
from Sir Douglas Mawson eighteen eighty two to nineteen fifty eight. F. J.
Jacka Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume ten nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
When the Great War ended, he returned to his post
at the University of Adelaide and resumed teaching geology. He
campaigned for strongest scientific education, public access to research, and
the formation of the Australian and Parctic Policy.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
I mean, you just would be like, can you tell
us about your time on Antartica? We have to look
at this goode. I don't want to look at the
good tell us more about the dogs.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
In nineteen twenty nine he led one final expedition BA NZA,
the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, which
claimed vast tracks of Antarctic territory for Australia and gathered
new aerial surveys of the continent. But his legacy had
already mean set. He went back at third time.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Hey man, you know you can't talk everyone how I
do in stupid shit? Can you fucking nuts?
Speaker 2 (43:20):
He went back at third time.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
I think perhaps, and I don't want to put words
in the man's mouth, but perhaps it was for a
sense of closure.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Was this spight again? Like you couldn't defeat me? And
I'm back to punch you in the face one more time. No.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Sometimes people like you know, you find out about people
going to you know, who lost night loved ones in
like nine to eleven, for example, and they'll return every year,
or you know, or they'll return every decade. Or there
were people who were affected by the tsunami in Bali
years and years ago. You know, they'll return, you know,
to sit there. And I mean, like, think about when
(43:59):
we were in It was the week of the anniversary
of the Hiroshima bombings, and we didn't realize it.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
It was literally the day before this seventy nine anniversary.
I capiculated it.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
And I mean we spoke to a person who had
been returning for the you know, the memory of her grandparents, sorry,
her mother. You know, I think that people find comfort
in that reconnection, or at least, you know, by going back,
(44:29):
you know, they were able to sort of come to
I don't know, some sort of conclusion or some sort
of comfort from doing that perhaps, or you know, perhaps
he even had a a very evolved sense of what
had happened. You know, they were all scientists, they knew
it was dangerous, they had been on the trip previously,
(44:50):
they had lost people. Then they all had decided to
go on the second trip. They knew the dangers, and
so they had died in the pursuit of science. And
maybe that of comfort to him as well. Maybe he
didn't even you know, maybe he didn't feel as sad
as you would expect him to. Maybe he just thought
that that was kind of the cost of pushing forward
(45:12):
in human achievement. And I mean again, that spirit of science,
of discovery, of exploration, it continues on long after Mawson.
You know, Mawson would only just miss seeing a man
land on the moon, you know, dying in nineteen fifty eight.
I mean that in itself must have like the you know,
(45:33):
just thinking about that there were people in space in
the last couple of years of his life. I could
only imagine what he thought of space exploration after going
to Antarctica, and think about all of the astronauts who
died trying to get into.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Space, the Challenger and such.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Well, I mean that's after the way, after the fact
that as they were prepping the Apollo missions, the first
space capsule had exploded and burnt all those men to
death inside it. The cosmonauts who ended up burning in
the atmosphere. You know, there's only been I think it
was that the only recorded deaths of humans outside of
US atmosphere were Russian early cosmonauts.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
And then there's no dogs, you know, in the chimps
and everyone else.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
So it's it's perhaps for more soon exploration, science discovery.
Maybe it was worth the cost to him.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
I'm sorry, but at the point where the bottom of
my feet feels off, that is the point where I'm like, no,
you fucking want into act to your I'm never coming
back here again.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
I think that we all go through, you know, those struggles,
like the philosopher Nietzsche, or I always say Nietzsche. I
think other people have different pronunciations, Natschi, naschi, whatever, you know.
He firmly believed that in order to have a fulfilling
life you need grand heights of joy and pleasure and
(47:04):
delight and love and fun, but they needed to be
juxtaposed with misery, depression, grief, sadness, loss. He felt that
you couldn't really say you've lived a life without those
two things. And I find that the and this is
where it's kind of ironic, you know, I find that
(47:26):
the most miserable people the ones who experienced neither high
nor lows, you know, they just sort of keep going.
So I think there is something to that philosophy. And perhaps,
you know, Mawson was a representative of that idea, perhaps
you know, or maybe he was just fucking nuts. Like
there's lots you know, there's lots of there's lots of
(47:48):
explanations there, you know, without having you know, without being
able to sit there and talk to them me and
I really couldn't tell you what these motivations were. But
I like to think that perhaps it was just the
pursuit science. It could have just been as simple as that.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
And then we have one last quote here which the
very last line of it made me shake my head.
But you'll understand when we get there.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Sir Douglas Mowson, the leader, left Melbourne late this afternoon
for Adal eight, where he will join the Nesta. As
the liner moved out from the Princess Pier, whuiz were
shouted from ship to shore. An Air Force plane swooping
low dropped farewell messages on the Nest's deck. Somewhere on
the pier, a shrill voice called out, don't forget to
bring me back a polar bear. Quote from the Advocate, Monday,
(48:35):
the sixteenth of September nineteen twenty nine, Page five, Mawson's Expedition.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
By that point in time, people had been on Anata
together for twelve years. They already knew there was no
freaking polar bears.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
There penguins, stupid, stupid penguins.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Mawson died October fourteenth, nineteen fifty eight, aged seventy six.
His ashes were scattered in the Flinders Rangers in Australia,
in the rocks that first made him a geologist. Today
his name is etched into the white edge of the world.
Mawson's Station, established in nineteen fifty four, is Australia's oldest
Antarctic base. There's a Mount Mawson, a Morson Peninsula, a
(49:14):
Mowson Cea. His face has been on postage stamps and
on the Australian one hundred dollars note. The collected diary
entries of his expeditions was published in two thousand and
three as a memoir that we have used for these episodes.
He never sought the spotlight, he didn't race for flags,
he didn't write about himself as a hero. But when
everything else was stripped away, his men, his ship, his food,
(49:36):
even the skin on the bottoms of his feet. He
kept going for the science and for the betterment of mancind.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion to the story
of one Douglas Mawson. So I hope you've enjoyed that.
We definitely enjoyed talking about it, and I hope that
inspires you to go on your own little journey of
a self discovery or maybe finding a hobby or a passion,
something that you can dedicate a little bit more of
your life too. I think it's very, very important. I
(50:05):
don't think you need to follow it to the ends
of the earth until your souls are falling off your feet.
But who am I to judge? And of course, next
time you see one hundred dollar bill and you see
that face there, you'll actually know what it's all about.
Until well, I mean, it's still there, right like I haven't. God,
I haven't seen one hundred dollars bill in years.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
I think it is. I'm just gonna check.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Because I know at the moment. There's obviously talk about
redesigning the five dollar note after Queen Elizabeth passed away
a few years back, and there's been talk about not
having them like a monarchy on the five dollar bill
again because I and I think there are better candidates
for it.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Honestly, Unfortunately he has been pulled off. Unfortunately he's no
longer on the newly redesigned one hundred dollar bill with
the clear window through it. It's Nellie Melburgh and John Monash.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Who are they?
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Nellie Melburgh I know is an opera singer. I fuck knows.
You don't know who John Nash other than Monash University.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, so there will be a new five dollar bill
in the future, I believe, because yeah, there were a
lot of there's this weird contingent of monicas in this country.
They get really upset if you want to take the
monarchy like I think, it's just a being beholden to
quote unquote traditional values. But who do you think should
be on the five dollar bill? I'd love to hear
your thoughts. You can reach out to us on the
(51:24):
Week crap in Australia Facebook page or other social media
just like putting Weird Crap in Australia into the search bar.
You can also track us down via good old fashioned email.
Week crap In Australia at gmail dot com. Send us
through all your comments, episode suggestions, feedback. We'd love to
hear all of that. You can also help us out
here at wee crap in Australia. You can check out
(51:46):
our Patreon forri only five dollars a month. You get
access to bonus minisodes as well as ad free episodes
released to you early. You can also check out our
week Crap in Australia book series at Volume under five
is available now. Our volume Stickers is coming out in September.
We in the process of designing the cover right now
with the good made Ignisioy.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
It's almost done.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yes, I saw another update today. It's looking absolutely fantastic.
So for all you book enthusiasts, number six is on
its way to be added to your collection. If you'd
like to grab the physical copy, we will have stock
with our great mates at Impact Comics dot com dot
Au if you're living here in Australia. If you're living internationally,
you'll be able to pick up a print on demand
copy from our print on demand website at lulu dot com.
(52:30):
That's l u lu dot com. And if you just
prefer a unclutded and minimalistic lifestyle. You can pick up
the digital version of the Kindle Shop. And last but
not least, if you'd like to wear your weir crap
prind straight on your chest, you can grab a shirt, mug, hat, bathmatt, bath, curtain,
you name it. It's all on our red bubble and
(52:52):
tea public storefronts. Just typing weir craping Australian into the
search engine for all those wonderful exigner designs, many of
them from our great mat Ignatio and just again, we
are setting up our YouTube channel with remastered episodes. That's
going to be coming soon if it's not out already.
We've got some lovely stuff going on there as well.
(53:13):
And does our customer. We give Holly the final words.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
So I went digging. Mowson was on the paper note,
which was redesigned in nineteen ninety six. After that they
replaced him with I believe it's frasier. I'd rather see
Mawson on it, honestly. But yeah, so you won't find
I don't think you'll find a Morson bank note hanging
around unless you're a collector, or which point it's probably
worth about two hundred USD here at the moment, so
keep hold of that.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely Holly. Well there you go, research on
the fly. Gotta love it. Well, that's it from us
from another episode of Weird Crap in Australia. Thank you
so much for joining us and we'll see you all
next week for more Weird Crap in Australia. Until then,
bye for now bye. The Weird Crap in Australia podcast
(54:08):
is produced by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown.
If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review on
your favorite podcatching app.
A strange, spiraling white light was spotted in the early
morning sky over Sydney, with even skeptical witnesses wondering if
it was a UFO. They were last seen on the
beach with a tall man and that's the best description
police have ever had of it.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
More than seventeen years after Harold Holt disappeared into raging
surf at Chevy a Beach, his widow has finally revealed
his last romantic words docky, terrifying, mesmerizing. That's the way
a number of Australians have described the alleged encounter with
the Yowi.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's time for the Weird Crap In Australia podcast. Welcome
to the week Crap In Australia Podcast. I'm your host,
Matthew sol This is episode three hundred and sixty six.
Joining me for another riveting tale of adventure an Arctic conquest.
(00:54):
Is the one and only researcher extraordinaire Holy Soul.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Who was working in something like minus two degrees this morning.
So I felt a little bit like Mawson.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I'm sure Mawson would have considered it quite warm Comparatively, Holly.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hey Man, I got to the point, I was wearing
two pairs of fingers gloves, like, that's super cold to me.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Dear ads, thanks, It's gonna get much colder here in Canberra.
We have now hit our minus one minus two degree mornings.
Of course, it's going to get a lot colder a
lot sooner. And of course, if you're listening from Canada
as well, we are thinking about you guys as you're
going through some terrible wildfires up there, Crustus. As Australians,
we know exactly how you feel. All right, Home to
(01:33):
delve back into it, just a quick recap though. Our
first two episodes cover Mawson's first adventure when he was
recruited by the man Shackleton. Now this upcoming adventure is
Mawson onto himself. He showed quite a lot of promise
as a leader in the previous episode. And would you say,
Holly that the two previous episodes are the reason he's
(01:55):
on one hundred dollars bill or this episode or a
combination of both.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's going to be oh no, I think, oh no.
See that's that's difficult because to me, neither expedition actually
gave him enough to be one hundred.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Dollars bill combination.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
But at the same time there were people who did more.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So why out I suppose we always reward the intrepid
adventurer the first game, you know, and not to forget
as well. He wasn't just an adventurer, He wasn't just
an explorer. He was also a scientist and conducted quite
a lot of research. So I think it's a combination
of those three factors, plus the fact that he went
(02:34):
to Antarctica twice.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, no one else is that dumb and crazy? Stupid?
Keep going. By mid December nineteen eleven, the Aurora had
cleared the southern Seas and pressed into the pack ice.
The ship, refitted for the journey, but still far from
an icebreaker, navigated through crushing ice fields and long stretches
of blackwater. The decks lay it in frost, their destination
one of the last truly blank spaces left on the map.
(02:59):
This was a coastline no one had mapped, no one
had walked, and no one had even seen. Keep in mind,
this is nineteen eleven and World War II. We'll start
in three years time. The main party arrived in Commonwealth
Bay on January eighth, nineteen twelve. The men rowed ashore
in lifeboats with their gear battling catabaltic winds, which are
(03:19):
winds that get colder as they blow down from an
elevated position. Think things such as a wind coming down
off a cliff base. They hold down from the polar
plateau like falling buildings, knocking things around. Mawson took a
liking to the location immediately. It was flat enough for
building upon and had good proximity to the plateau because
of the wind blowing debris out to see for the
(03:40):
last ten thousand years. It was in a good position
for inland and coastal work. He decided to establish the
main base there on a rocky headland that they ended
up naming Cape Denison. It was a curse decision. In hindsight.
Cape Denison proved to be one of the windiest places
on Earth. The team recorded regular wind gusts of over
three hundred kilometers an hour. Not once in their two
(04:01):
year occupation did the wind stop entirely. There were only
degrees of battle.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
With regard to climate, in general, Antartica has the lowest
mean temperature and the highest wind velocity of any land existing.
This naturally follows from the fact that it is a
lofty expanse of ice clad land circumscribing the pole, and
that the Antarctic summer occurs when the Earth is farther
from the Sun than is the case during the Arctic summer.
(04:28):
Quote from chapter one, The Problem in Preparations, The Home
of the Blizzard, Douglas Mawson, nineteen fifteen.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Because if you remember from like year eight science class,
cast your mind bread twenty thirty years, the Earth wobbles
like a top, but it wobbles on the bottom. It
doesn't wobble on the top. So basically, if you flip
a top upside down, that's how we wobble.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, he's basically saying that even summer in the South
Pole is preferable to the summer in the North Pole,
as it is far older, right, Starteakers.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Summer in the Antarctic, which is down the bottom, is
colder than summer in the North all.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Right, So basically what they're saying there is that the
winters on the North Pole even more preferable to winters
on the South Pole.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Absolutely. Still, the group got to work. They built the
main hut prefabricated in Hobart and assembled by freezing Hans.
It was crowded.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Okay, they high and ike first flat pack.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I made that joke in the first episode. You didn't
react it. I was very upset.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Oh really yeah, oh sorry about that? And then I
stole it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You did. It was crowded. There were eighteen men, one
stove and barely roomed to sleep without stepping on someone's foot.
Their boots froze, the walls iced over. They braced their
gear down with rope and wire and still ended up
losing tools to the wind. Snow buried everything, yet somehow
it held. They also set up a wireless relay station
(05:59):
on Macquori Island, a base midway between Antarctica and New Zealand,
so that the team stationed at the newly named Commonwealth
Bay co send messages home. It was the first time
a wireless link had ever been established between Antarctica and
the rest of the world. Communications were limited to Morse
code and plagued with interference, but it worked.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
At two this morning, received a faint signal from Delay.
I answered as soon as I could, and also called
him for a considerable time, but he did not hear me.
The only distinguishable words I received were please tell permanent
hills if working. And also the words I cannot call tonight,
I am keeping patient lot conditions are extremely favorable. Quote
(06:40):
from the Argus Saturday, twenty eighth that's come in nineteen twelve,
page eighteen. Call from the Antarctic.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's actually one of the very first transmissions from the Antarctic.
It's I'm ringing tonight to say I can't ring.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Tonight by kind of ironic. Yeah, there's a whole history
if you're ever interested in of strange communications sent at
the early unvent of the so the early advent of
the Ham radio. I think even the Simpsons make fun
of it when I think it's either Bart or Lisa
has a Ham radio, like you don't even use your
(07:15):
Ham radio anymore, and it cuts to someone speaking in
Chinese and it translates to hey have a Ham radio.
There was I think it was a couple of years ago.
Now there was a little girl who managed to use
a Ham radio and she contacted the ISS.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
That's cool. I mean, that's amazing for that range. But
that's good.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
It's really it's not as much as you think. So
I used to be the second operator on my grandfather's
Ham radio and he had a small, leish powered antenna,
we could easily contact, you know, people in Wogga Wogga sometimes. Hey,
it's sort of all depended on the conditions because at
(07:56):
night you get a clearer signal. So that's just because
there's less in appearance. When the sun's up, there's more
electrical interference. I don't know the science behind it, so
we ended up, you know, we could talk to people
in Aubrey Wogga Wogga in Hay and then I mean,
if you've got a direct run straight to the top
and the ISS is sort of overhead or relatively overhead, yeah,
(08:19):
there should be an opportunity to chat with them. For sure.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
That's the start of a horror movie, just people in
the ISS hearing a little girl.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Going hello, or the inverse of like, Hi, I've bought
this ham radio. I'm just contacting the ISS. No help us,
Oh god, it's out, it's out.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Oh please.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You something like that would be a bit of fun.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
If not, if you're in it.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
No, not, if you're in it.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Well, Shackleton had caught a Glory and the South Pole
on his expedition. Mawson's expedition was built for science. They
divided into sub parties, and spent the first year collecting
meteorological data, measuring magnetic fields, dissecting penguins, and charting every
inch of the coast they could reach without being blown
into the ocean.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Our shot mile of rocks still held some geographical secrets,
and there were biological discoveries yet to make. A wireless
telegraph station had at last been established, and we could
confidently expect communication with the outside world at an early date.
These were some of the obvious assurances, which no one
had the heart to think about at first. And then
(09:31):
there was always our comradeship, most enduring of all Chapter
twenty three, Second Winter at the home of the Blizzard
Douglas Mawson in nineteen fifteen.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
By the first spring, Mawson had begun planning the next phase,
sledging journeys across the ice to collect inland data and
explore the surrounding regions. Several parties were formed, each task,
with traveling hundreds of kilometers in various directions, falling sledges
loaded with supplies and scientific instruments. Bitious of these would
be the Eastern Journey, led by Morson himself, the Far
(10:04):
Eastern Party, as he called It consisted of Mawson, a
young British officer named Belgrave, Ninnies, and a Swiss mountaineer
and ski expert named Xavier Mertz. They left Cape Denison
on the tenth of December nineteen twelve, heading east across
the glacier, falling two sledges pulled by huskies. Their plan
was to chart unknown territory, gather geological data, and return
(10:25):
in five or six weeks. They made good time at first.
The ice was rough but manageable, and the dogs performed well.
Mawson took geological readings while Mirths and Ninnies handled the teams.
They covered over four hundred kilometers in the first month,
though terrain through terrain no one had mapped, naming peaks
and valleys as they went. Spirits were high, though the
(10:47):
weather remained cruel. Then came December fourteen. Mertz and Mowson
were traveling ahead of Ninnies, who was managing the rear
sledge with one carrying most of the foot Sorry I apologize.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
In the two occurring Characters and last podcast on the left,
two obnoxious sisters called Ninny and Nanny and every time
you say Unfortunately and it's a Henry Sabowski impression as well.
I'm nanny, I'm nanny. It's it's sort of interesting how
(11:20):
names disappear from the parlance eventually, don't they. Because you
think of an Aline is not one that we mentioned earlier,
that's one that's definitely disappeared. And then yeah, Minnie and Belgrave.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You don't see anyone called Belgrave now.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah. Yeah. But it's like it's almost because I think
maybe things like mini Mouse, I suppose that they become cliche.
It's like all those poor little bastards who were born
with the name Kalisi, who will be perpetually embarrassed for
most of their lives.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
They're changing their name just as soon as Again.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
I don't think you should name your kids after pop culture.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Unless there's something innocuous like Bruce or Pluck or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, like an actual name. Diana is another
one I think, yeah, in that respect that you really
shouldn't do it. There was a stand up comedian I
was watching her bit and she had a very very
exotic sounding name, and she's like, you know, people struggle
with my name, and they immediately start to feel like
they're secondhand racist, and I have to explain to them
(12:23):
that I was actually named after a Klingon from Star
Trek because my parents were nerds. You know what I mean?
You you just don't do it. Don't do it. It's
never going to be a good idea.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's cute when they're younger, it's not so cute when
they get older.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, I mean, what does my name mean? It means mothering,
no bad, bad parents.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Ninnis was managing the rear sledge, the one carrying most
of the food, the tent, the better gear, and six
of the strongest dogs. I bet you can't tell where
this is going.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I am assuming that something is going to give way.
The dogs, the sled, and the man are all going
to disappear into the abyss, or an alien parasite infects
one of the dogs, and then it goes back to
the station. And then there's like this whole thing where
they suspect each other and then they use fire to
test each other's blood.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Either way, it's a horror story.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, either way, you fucked, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
The snow was deceptive that day, forming a delicate crust
over hidden prevasses. Mowson crossed one without incident, Mertz followed.
When they look back the Ninnies, he was gone. The sledge,
the dogs, and Ninnis had fallen through a hidden crevasse.
There was no sound, just absence.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Ninnis, who was walking along by the side of his
sledge close behind my own, heard the warning from my
backward clean so I noticed that he immediately swung the
leading dogs so as to cross the cavass squarely instead
of diagonally, as I had done. Then I went on
with my work. There was no sound from behind, except
(13:59):
faint plaintive wine from one of the dogs, which I imagine
was in reply to a touch from Ninni's whip. I
remember addressing myself to George, the laziest dog in my
own team, saying, you will be getting a little of
that too, George, if you're not careful. When I looked
back was in response to the anxious gaze of Mertz,
who had turned round and halted in his tracks behind me.
(14:24):
Nothing met the eye but my own sledge tracks running
back in the distance. Where were Ninnies and his sledge.
I paced him back along the trail, thinking that a
rise in the ground obscured the view. There was no
such good fortune, however, for I came to a gaping
hole in the surface about eleven feet walk. The lead
(14:46):
of a crevasse had broken in. Two sledge tracks led
up to it on the far side, but only one
continued on the other side. Frantically waving to Mertz to
bring up my sledge, upon which there was some alpine row,
I leaned over and shouted into the dark depths below.
No sound came back, the moaning of a dog caught
(15:07):
on a shelf just visible one hundred and fifty feet below.
The poor creature appeared to have broken its back, for
it was attempting to sit up with the front part
of its body while the hinder portion lay limp. Another
dog lay motionless by its side. Close by was what
appeared in the gloom to be the remains of the
tent and a canvas tank containing food for three men
(15:29):
for a fortnight. We broke back the edge of the
nav lid, took turns leaning over, leaning over, secured by
a rope, calling into the darkness in the hope that
our companion might still be alive. For three hours we
called unceasingly, but no answering sound came back. The dog
had ceased to moan and lay without a movement. A
(15:52):
chill draft was blowing out of the abyss. We felt
that there was little hope. Why had the first sledge
as escape the crevasse. It seemed that I had been
fortunate because my sledge should cross diagonally with a greater
chance of breaking the snow lid. The sledges were within
thirty pounds of the same weight. The explanation appeared to
(16:14):
be that Ninnie had walked by the side of his sledge,
where as I had crossed it sitting on the sledge.
The whole weight of a man's body bearing on his foot,
it's a formidable load, and no doubt was sufficient to
smash the up of the roof. Quote from Home of
the Blizzard A. Douglas Morrison at nineteen fifteen, page one
hundred and fifty seven. So there goes their food, and
(16:37):
there goes their shelter and half of the dogs.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Mawson and Mertz eventually made camp felt was little more
than a trench dug into the snow. Their food was
nearly gone. There were over five hundred kilometers from base
with no shelter, no dog food, and no spare clothes.
Only their sledge remained behind with six dogs, who had
about as much food available as the humans. They had
absolutely no choice. They turned back on the antarctic plateaus.
(17:05):
There's nothing living, nothing that could feed them. In order
to survive, Mowson and Mertz slaughtered and ate the dogs
one by one. Husky meat was tough and fowl, especially
starving dogs and their organs, had to be ration carefully.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Isn't a dog liver also very poisonous? Yes, you have
to be extraordinarily careful. Yes, and I believe that can
be the same of a lot of Antarctic creatures, isn't it.
Don't be Inuits know how, like which parts to eat
and which parts to leave. Think polar bear liver is
especially poisonous as well.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, it's all. It's not so much poisonous as overfilled
with the vitamin that will kill you.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
In over.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The men boiled what they could in a small pot
over a blubber stove. Mowson recorded the meals in his
dairy with scientific detachment.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Liver lights, kidneys, and brains, he wrote, boiled into soup.
At this time we were eating largely of the dog's meat,
to which we added one or two ounces of chocolate
or raisins, three or four ounces of pemmican and biscuit
mixed together, and as a beverage very dilute coco. The
(18:19):
total weight of solid food consumed by each man per
day was approximately fourteen ounces. A small supply of butter
and glaxo was saved for emergency. All a few tea
bags which remained were boiled over over again. Our faithful retainer,
Ginger could walk no longer strapped on the sledge. She
(18:39):
was the last of the dogs and been some sort
of a help till a few days before. Were sad
when it came to finishing her off, on account of
the steep upgrade and the weight of Ginger on the sledge.
We camped at seven to fifteen am, after only four
miles one two hundred thirty yards. We had breakfast off Ginger,
(18:59):
skull and brain. I never forget the occasion. There was
nothing available to divide it. The skull was boiled whole,
then the right and left halves were drawn for by
the old and well established sledging practice of shut eye,
after which we took it in turns heating to the middle,
passing the skull from one to the other. The brain
(19:21):
was afterwards scooped out with a wooden spoon. Quote from
the Home of the Blizzard, Douglas Moulson, nineteen fifteen, page
one hundred and sixty three. And if you wonder how
I can just easily transition from one of those things
to the other, I don't know. Holly is seeing. They're
horrified right now.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Holly had to read this diary.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So it's interesting, though. I think you can maintain a
healthy detachment when it's just words. When you put a
bit of emotion and inflection into it, it changes.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That's why audiobooks become more powerful. Mettz began to decline.
Wrapp his skin peeled time. Mertz his gum bled. He
suffered nausea, weakness, and hallucinations. Mawson tried to support him,
dragging the sledge alone when necessary splitting rations, but Mertz
grew worse by the day. On January eighth, nineteen thirteen,
(20:17):
he died in his sleep. Similar to Burke and Wills
fifty two years before. His death was caused by his food.
Mertz died of a vitamin and E overdose, while Burkes
and Wills died of a vitamin B one deficiency.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Like I said, you got to be careful of those
dog livers. January seventh, up at eight am. It having
been arranged last night that we would go on today
at all costs, sledge sailing with Savior in his bag
on the sledge was a sad blow to me to
find that Mertz was in a weak state and required
helping in and out of his bag, needed rest for
(20:50):
a few hours at least before he could think of traveling.
I ed have to turn in again to kill time,
and also to keep warm, for I feel the cold
very much. At ten am, I get up to dress
Savior and prepare food, but find him in a kind
of fit coming around a few minutes later. He exchanged
a few words and did not seem to realize that
(21:12):
anything had happened. Obviously, we can't go on today. There's
a good day, though the light is bad, the sun
just gleaming through the clouds. It's this terrible. I don't
mind for myself but for others, and pray to God
to help us. I cook some thick cocoa for Xavier
and give him beef tea. It's better afternoon, but very low.
(21:37):
I have to lift him up to drink. During the afternoon,
he had several more fits, and then became delirious and
talked incoherently until midnight, and he appeared to fall off
into a peaceful sumber. So I toggled up the sleeping
bag and retired, worn out into my own After a
couple of hours, having felt no movement from my companion,
(21:58):
I stretched out an arm, found that he was stiff.
My comrade had been accepted into the peace and the pascath,
all understanding. It was my fervent hope that he had
been received where sterling qualities and of high mind reaped
their due reward in his life. We loved him. He
was a man of character, generous, and of noble parts.
(22:23):
For hours I lay in the bag, rolling over in
my mind all that lay behind, and the chances the
future seemed to stand alone on the wide doors of
the world, and watched a short step to enter the
unknown future. Chapter thirteen, Toil and Tribulation, The Home of
(22:43):
the Blizzard, Douglas Mawson, nineteen fifteen, page one hundred and
sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Mawson, now completely alone, wrapped Mertz in his sleeping bag
and buried him in the snow. Then he adjusted the
sledgehness and began walking. Allegisha of cannibalism were leveled at
Morson almost immediately after his return to civilization, but without
Mertzer's body, it can never be proven.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I mean, he was already dead.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
You're running out of food and mates already.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Dead, Like I mean, we've discussed cannibalism on the show before.
It's one of the worst survival tactics though, because ultimately
it doesn't really do a lot for you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
What you're missing is what they're missing too.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, So realistically, all you're doing is filling your stomach. Now,
whether he turned around and ate the guy, you know,
he was already dying by what sounds like the you know,
like you said, Holly, the vitamin A overdose from all
the dog liver. So at the end of the day,
it doesn't really matter. He was always going to die.
But yeah, it's just a terribly sad, tragic set of
circumstances that evening. According to his ex edition account, Molson
(23:48):
followed these pants with a duty equally difficult from an
emotional perspective. Burying mertz First, he toggled up to his
friend and his sleeping bag, and then he pulled him
outside the and ate her that he piled snowblocks around
and over him mountain above the arsic grave across fashioned
from that abandoned half of the sledge inside the to him.
(24:10):
He left a waterproof case holding the last camera films
and an old statement what happened or did he? A
couple of years later, while touring the United States, Mawson
was quoted as given a distinctly different story about the
forty eight hours after Murder's death. I thought for two
days about eating Mertz. The New York Evening Globe reported
(24:33):
him saying I was awfully short of food. But I
decided that if I did get back to civilization, would
always leave a bad taste in my mouth. So I
buried him and I went on the next day. Apparently
picking the story up from the New York papers, the
bridge Port Standard from neighboring Connecticut reported that Mowlson had said,
(24:57):
after remaining with the body for two days, thinking what
to do, A finally buried Dr Mertz under an is hammock.
But both of these reports and similar ones were soon
refuted by Mawson. Onto the headline, Mowson had no idea
of turning cannibalistic. Sir Douglas Cole's story that he had
design on dead comrade fiction. The Toronto Daily Star stated,
(25:21):
regarding the dispatch from New York a few days to
the effect that Sir Douglas Mawson said the report was
outrageous and the invention of the New York Reporter. Nevertheless,
the question of whether he engaged in cannibalism as had
occurred in dire circumstances in the Arctic is one that
has persisted. Quote from Racing with Death, Douglas Mawson, Entonic
(25:44):
explorer Bo Riffenberg, two thousand and nine, Bloomsbury, page one
thirty one to one thirty two. That's you know, I
just picked that accent just for the fucking sake of it.
And to see that his name is Bo Ryffinbar it
probably fit.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Probably is.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, enjoying myself a cool drink on this hot summer afternoon.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
My brain was just following you. It moved like from
Texas through New Orleans and not to Connecticut and then
went back to Texas again.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
I did the best with what I could. Holly could
use me as some of that delicious asked sweet tea
over there, ma'am. You know I always think.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Of now you sounding like Walter Goggins.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Well, I was about to say, I was thinking of
when I was reading it through. Walter Goggins is in
a couple of shows on ho Max with Danny McBride
and yeah, he's got that, he's got that. Mmmm. Just
testla molasses hanging out of your man. Very sinister, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah. The rumors might have followed him, but they never
actually made it into the Australian newspapers that have been
digitized on Probe, and there's a lot of pre nineteen
fifties newspapers out there.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I think it was a sign of respect for a
lot of explorers who found themselves in similar circumstances, like
what do you want to do? Rub it in their face.
It's not as if they were engaging in cannibalism because
they wanted to.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, that was the Tasmanian bush Rangers.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, there were definitely people that we've discussed who were
down and outright cannibals, and we've talked about them, and
we've talked about the malicious nature of those people. But
in their circumstance and in the circumstances of most people
in these sort of survival situations, you can't really blame
the person for, you know, eating someone else. Look, you know,
(27:37):
if Holly, if we ever find ourselves trapped on a mountain,
I die first, go ahead, eat what you want. I
don't really care. I'm already dead.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
As long as you don't kill me to do it,
it's fine.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, exactly, That's my only thing. Just don't kill me
to do.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It, or if you do, do it while I'm asleep
so I don't feel it. The return journey took thirty
days from the death of Mertz. All of them. He
was walking on his own, with nothing but the wind
and his own exhausted voice for company.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
He was starving, you're fucked up, Got up? Oh you
really done it this time? Got up? Let's sing together.
I hate you, I hate you right back, And they
just go back and forth like that constantly.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Probably I probably would have done that at some point
in time. Thirty days on my own. Yeah, he was starving.
His skin cracked open, his hair fell it. The soles
of his feet separated from the flesh as he walked.
He lashed them back on with cloth and lanoln At
one point he fell into a cravass, himself saved only
by a harness rope. He hung there for a time,
(28:38):
considering whether it would be easier not to climb out.
Then he hauled himself back up and kept going.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I considered clipping out of my harness and just dropping
to end it, but I couldn't see the bottom of
the crevass, and I was afraid I'd simply fall on
some ledge below me and linger in misery with broken bones.
It seemed impossible that I could again muster strength for
that climb. The climb upwards was a struggle of four
(29:07):
enough ackwards, and then afterwards I cooked and ate dog
meat enough to give me a regular orgy. Because of
this harrowing experience, he fashioned a rope ladder and kept
it attached to himself and the sledge in expectation of
similar events. Quote from Mawson A Life Philippares, Melbourne University Press,
(29:27):
nineteen ninety nine, age nineteen and by regular orgy as well,
he means a feast.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, it's nineteen, ends speakers.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
He did out fucked the dogs.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, by then he didn't have a carcass, so it
wouldn't have been a point anyway, Mawson cut weight from
his pack, He burned parts of his own journal for warmth.
He illucinated a companion walking beside him, silent and comforting
day after death.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
A lot of people who find themselves in survival situations
also describe this sort of thing happening. And it's interesting.
I almost think of it like a survival adaptation where
the human consciousness sort of splits and becomes a sort
of a motivating external presence.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Humans don't do well on their You can be as
introverted as you want, but you will still rely on
someone being there. And even if you don't, you're relying
on books or movies or something like that to keep
you entertained, which is other people.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Well, I mean that has to be some of the
inspiration in Star Wars, right, like in the Empire Strikes
Back when Luke Skywalker, you know, fights the Wampa and
the big cave comes out. He's all fucked up, he's dying,
and then Obi Wan Kenobi appears to him as a
force ghost. Like you would have to assume that somewhere
along the line, Lucas read about these people, you know,
(30:51):
being trapped on mountains or being trapped in the Arctic
ways and having those audio visual hallucinations.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I mean, the rest of the stuff he took, so
why not.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
But they're motivating too. Yeah, a lot of people who
have got caught in those situations describe this motivating presence,
you know, keep going like you're nearly there. You're nearly there.
One more step, one more step. And some people when't
they've discussed them, discussed them very fondly, you know, as
if talking about an old friend or a close relative.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It was an asshole, but he got me through that.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, that helped them get get over the air. Like
I think, I remember reading one guy got trapped on
a mountain and it was like his like bad minton
partner from when he was in university, so like the
like he's they always had a rivalry. So he was like, oh, well,
I guess I'm going to win that, aren't I? And
he's like, well fuck you, and kept going, you know,
(31:44):
and it's yeah, it's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
You're surviving through spite of a ghost.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
You will well it. Like I said, it's like in
a it's an adaptation. It's like your conscious separate, your
consciousness separates out a little bit to you know, push
you further because you've got it. Like, when it comes
to human biology, everything is about survival. You know, keep going,
keep going forward, keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing. You know,
(32:09):
people live through the most horrendous things because you know
they want to survive, you quite simply.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Like, well, they don't want to survive, but their body
sure as hell does.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, what the human brain will do in those sort
of circumstances is truly incredible. I mean, think about it.
We now have surgeries, right Like, you know, let's say
you end up with stomach cancer. There are people who
have their entire stomachs removed and continue on. You know,
there are people who are literally you know, falling apart.
You know, they've got half a face, one leg, and
(32:42):
no arms, and they continue to keep going. You know,
there is something about the ability for a human to
survive that is truly incredible.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
On February eighth, nineteen thirteen, Mowson staggered back into Keep Dennison.
The men left at base barely recognized him.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
I waited to mend one of the crampons and then
started off for the hut, but a blizzard had commenced
to descend the five miles of steep, icy slopes with
my miserable crampons in the weak state in which I
found myself would only have been as a last resort.
So I camped in the comfortable cave and hoped for
better weather than the next day. The high wind, rising
(33:26):
to a hurricane at times, continued for a whole week,
with dense drift until the eighth I spent the long
hours making crampons of a new pattern, eating and sleeping.
Eventually I became so anxious that I used to sit
outside the cave for long spells, watching for a lull
in the wind. At length, I resolved to go down
in the blizzard, sitting on the sledge as long as possible,
(33:49):
blown along by the wind, I was making preparations for
a start when the wind suddenly decreased. My opportunity had come.
In a couple of hours, I was within one mile
and a half of the hut. There was no sign
of the ship lying in the offling, but I comforted them.
But I comforted myself with the thought that you might
still be at the anchorage and have swung in shore
(34:12):
as to stay hidden by the ice cliffs. Or on
the other hand, the Captain Davies might have been along
the coast to the east searching there. But even as
I gazed about seeking for a clue, a speck on
the northwest arise and caught my eye, and my hopes
went down. It looked like a distant ship. It might
as well have been the Aurora. Well, one matter. The
(34:36):
long journey was at an end, A terrible chapter of
my life finished. Then the rocks around winter Quarters began
to come into view. Part of the basin of the
boat harbor appeared and loll there were human figures. They
almost seemed unreal. I was in a dream. But after
a brief moment one of them saw me, waved an arm,
(35:00):
are replied. There was a commotion, and they all ran
towards that art. Then they were lost, for the crest
of the first steep slope hit them. It almost seemed
to me that they had run away to hide. Minutes
passed and I slowly went along the sledge. Then a
head rode over the brow of the hill, and there
(35:21):
was Bickerton, breathless after a long run. I expect he
considered for a while which one of us it was
Quote from Home of the Blizzard Douglas Mawson at page
one seventy six.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Imagine coming over a hill, seeing these tiny figures running
around and then vanishing again. You'd think that you just
imagine that I.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Am not, especially after imagining a ghosts for the last
like two weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Mawson's first question was, is the Aurora still here? It wasn't.
The Aurora, captain by John King Davis, had waited as
long as it could. The ship was due to return
to Hobart before the sea ice closed in for another year.
When Mowson's party failed to return, Davis left a six
man relief team behind and sailed the Aurora. Departed just
(36:11):
five hours before Mawson came into view.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
That's rough.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Much like Birkenwells and their rescue party, who missed their
rescuers by nine hours, Mawson had missed his way home
by less than a day. Unlike Birkenwells, his rescue party
had food.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yes, yes, they weren't left to their own devices. They
actually had survival until the ship could come back. The
captain wouldn't have left the crew there unless he could
come back for them. The Aurora arrived on January thirteen,
or the sledge parties returned to the half by January seventeen,
and with the exception of my party consisting of Lieutenant Ninnis,
(36:49):
Doctor Mertz, and myself. On December four, whilst exploring a
new coastline three hundred miles southeast of our winter quarters,
Ninnis with the one dog team and on all the
food disappeared into an unfathomable ravasse. Merts and I, with
inadequate provisions and six starving dogs, struck out over the
plateau for the Hut, encountering unexpectedly bad weather which retarded
(37:14):
our progress. We sussisted chiefly on the dogs. On January seventeen,
Mertz died from causes arising from our nutrition. On February seventh,
I alone arrived at the hut, having traveled through the
snow and fogs, miraculously guided by providence, through heavily revassed areas.
Captain Davies had waited until it was no longer safe,
(37:37):
and is now proceeding to our western base. He left
a few hours before my arrival at the hut. Six
men are here with me at the Hut who were
left to prosecute a search, namely Madigan Beije McLean, Bickerton
and Jeffreys. The Aurora intended to return from the west
and is expected in a few days when an attempt
(37:58):
will be made to get off, but on account of
heavy winds, we are unlikely to get off. Regular wireless
communication may be expected in the future. Quote from The Argus, Thursday,
the sixth of March nineteen thirteen, page thirteen. Antarctic horrors.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Too weak to protest, Mawson had no choice but to
overwinter an antarcticree, his second full year at Kate Dennison.
The difference here was that he wasn't alone, and he
had been left with plenty of supplies to see him through.
But even as he recovered, he resumed his scientific work.
He wrote reports, he catalog specimens, he reviewed the work
(38:37):
of the other sledging parties, and resumed leadership of the
remaining team. The Aurora returned in December nineteen thirteen and
finally brought Mawson home. He returned to a world that
barely knew what had happened. The death of Scott's entire
expedition had dominated the polar headlines for over a year. Bedson,
the German contribution to the effort, had reached the South Pole.
(39:00):
The public had grown weary of Antarctic hardship, and so
Mawson's remarkable survival was almost ignored. But in scientific circles,
Mawson's name was spoken with quiet awe. He hadn't reached
a poll, he hadn't claimed territory, but he had brought
back something better. He returned with more than five thousand
kilometers of newly mapped pastline, magnetic and meteorological records from
(39:24):
a previously unmeasured sector of the continent, and an unmatched
body of geological work. He brought data that would inform
climate science, mineralogy, and even global magnetic modeling. For Deck's end,
he survived.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
The first real touch of civilization came unexpectedly early on
the morning of February twenty first, a full rigged ship
of a southern horizon. It might have been an iceberg.
The sales flushed so white in the morning sun that
onward ere came with a strong southwester, overhauled and pastus
(39:57):
signaling Archibald Russell, fifty four days out from Buenos Aires,
bound for a Cape order. It was too magical to believe.
On February twenty six, we gazed at distant cliffs of
rock and earth, Kangaroo Island, and the tiny cluster of
dwellings around the lighthouse at Cape Order. Then we entered
(40:18):
Saint Vincent's Gulf on a clear hot tail, marveling at
the sandy blue water, the long flat mainland with its
clumps of trees and smoke of many steamers, the welcome home,
the voices of innumerable strangers, and hand groups of many friends.
The choaxwe cannot be uttered. Quote from Mawson, Home of
(40:41):
the Blizzard, page three hundred and eighty five.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Mawson published The Home of the Blizzard in nineteen fifteen
A long dance, and I will attest to that because
there is a lot of scientific jargon in there, and
sometimes emotionally stark account of the expedition. His tone was reserved,
but not cold. He wrote of mert and ninnies with reverence.
He barely mentioned the hallucinations. The suffering is there in
(41:06):
the subtexts. The facts do the work. In nineteen fifteen.
That same year he was knighted and became Sir Douglasmawson.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
In nineteen fifteen he applied to serve in a scientific
capacity in World War One, and in May nineteen sixteen
he was attached to the British Ministry of Munitions. He
became embarcation Officer for shipments of high explosives and poison
gas from Britain to Russia. Later working for the Russian
Military Commission, he investigated and reported on production in Britain
(41:37):
in order to increase output of high explosives in Russia itself.
After the Revolution, he was transferred to the British staff
of the Commission International Commission of Commission internationally the ravelmnent.
Now that sounded terrible as well, Holly, what's the English
translation please.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Commission of International Commission of Revitalization.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Thank you very much. Concerned with the maintenance of supplies
of high explosives, chemicals, poison gas and petroleum oil products.
He held the military rank of Major. In nineteen twenty
he was appointed obe after the war. Until nineteen twenty three,
he was a committee member of the Australia War Museum,
which is now known as the Australian War Memorial. Vote
(42:20):
from Sir Douglas Mawson eighteen eighty two to nineteen fifty eight. F. J.
Jacka Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume ten nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
When the Great War ended, he returned to his post
at the University of Adelaide and resumed teaching geology. He
campaigned for strongest scientific education, public access to research, and
the formation of the Australian and Parctic Policy.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
I mean, you just would be like, can you tell
us about your time on Antartica? We have to look
at this goode. I don't want to look at the
good tell us more about the dogs.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
In nineteen twenty nine he led one final expedition BA NZA,
the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, which
claimed vast tracks of Antarctic territory for Australia and gathered
new aerial surveys of the continent. But his legacy had
already mean set. He went back at third time.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
Hey man, you know you can't talk everyone how I
do in stupid shit? Can you fucking nuts?
Speaker 2 (43:20):
He went back at third time.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
I think perhaps, and I don't want to put words
in the man's mouth, but perhaps it was for a
sense of closure.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Was this spight again? Like you couldn't defeat me? And
I'm back to punch you in the face one more time. No.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Sometimes people like you know, you find out about people
going to you know, who lost night loved ones in
like nine to eleven, for example, and they'll return every year,
or you know, or they'll return every decade. Or there
were people who were affected by the tsunami in Bali
years and years ago. You know, they'll return, you know,
to sit there. And I mean, like, think about when
(43:59):
we were in It was the week of the anniversary
of the Hiroshima bombings, and we didn't realize it.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
It was literally the day before this seventy nine anniversary.
I capiculated it.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
And I mean we spoke to a person who had
been returning for the you know, the memory of her grandparents, sorry,
her mother. You know, I think that people find comfort
in that reconnection, or at least, you know, by going back,
(44:29):
you know, they were able to sort of come to
I don't know, some sort of conclusion or some sort
of comfort from doing that perhaps, or you know, perhaps
he even had a a very evolved sense of what
had happened. You know, they were all scientists, they knew
it was dangerous, they had been on the trip previously,
(44:50):
they had lost people. Then they all had decided to
go on the second trip. They knew the dangers, and
so they had died in the pursuit of science. And
maybe that of comfort to him as well. Maybe he
didn't even you know, maybe he didn't feel as sad
as you would expect him to. Maybe he just thought
that that was kind of the cost of pushing forward
(45:12):
in human achievement. And I mean again, that spirit of science,
of discovery, of exploration, it continues on long after Mawson.
You know, Mawson would only just miss seeing a man
land on the moon, you know, dying in nineteen fifty eight.
I mean that in itself must have like the you know,
(45:33):
just thinking about that there were people in space in
the last couple of years of his life. I could
only imagine what he thought of space exploration after going
to Antarctica, and think about all of the astronauts who
died trying to get into.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Space, the Challenger and such.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
Well, I mean that's after the way, after the fact
that as they were prepping the Apollo missions, the first
space capsule had exploded and burnt all those men to
death inside it. The cosmonauts who ended up burning in
the atmosphere. You know, there's only been I think it
was that the only recorded deaths of humans outside of
US atmosphere were Russian early cosmonauts.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
And then there's no dogs, you know, in the chimps
and everyone else.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
So it's it's perhaps for more soon exploration, science discovery.
Maybe it was worth the cost to him.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
I'm sorry, but at the point where the bottom of
my feet feels off, that is the point where I'm like, no,
you fucking want into act to your I'm never coming
back here again.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
I think that we all go through, you know, those struggles,
like the philosopher Nietzsche, or I always say Nietzsche. I
think other people have different pronunciations, Natschi, naschi, whatever, you know.
He firmly believed that in order to have a fulfilling
life you need grand heights of joy and pleasure and
(47:04):
delight and love and fun, but they needed to be
juxtaposed with misery, depression, grief, sadness, loss. He felt that
you couldn't really say you've lived a life without those
two things. And I find that the and this is
where it's kind of ironic, you know, I find that
(47:26):
the most miserable people the ones who experienced neither high
nor lows, you know, they just sort of keep going.
So I think there is something to that philosophy. And perhaps,
you know, Mawson was a representative of that idea, perhaps
you know, or maybe he was just fucking nuts. Like
there's lots you know, there's lots of there's lots of
(47:48):
explanations there, you know, without having you know, without being
able to sit there and talk to them me and
I really couldn't tell you what these motivations were. But
I like to think that perhaps it was just the
pursuit science. It could have just been as simple as that.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
And then we have one last quote here which the
very last line of it made me shake my head.
But you'll understand when we get there.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Sir Douglas Mowson, the leader, left Melbourne late this afternoon
for Adal eight, where he will join the Nesta. As
the liner moved out from the Princess Pier, whuiz were
shouted from ship to shore. An Air Force plane swooping
low dropped farewell messages on the Nest's deck. Somewhere on
the pier, a shrill voice called out, don't forget to
bring me back a polar bear. Quote from the Advocate, Monday,
(48:35):
the sixteenth of September nineteen twenty nine, Page five, Mawson's Expedition.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
By that point in time, people had been on Anata
together for twelve years. They already knew there was no
freaking polar bears.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
There penguins, stupid, stupid penguins.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Mawson died October fourteenth, nineteen fifty eight, aged seventy six.
His ashes were scattered in the Flinders Rangers in Australia,
in the rocks that first made him a geologist. Today
his name is etched into the white edge of the world.
Mawson's Station, established in nineteen fifty four, is Australia's oldest
Antarctic base. There's a Mount Mawson, a Morson Peninsula, a
(49:14):
Mowson Cea. His face has been on postage stamps and
on the Australian one hundred dollars note. The collected diary
entries of his expeditions was published in two thousand and
three as a memoir that we have used for these episodes.
He never sought the spotlight, he didn't race for flags,
he didn't write about himself as a hero. But when
everything else was stripped away, his men, his ship, his food,
(49:36):
even the skin on the bottoms of his feet. He
kept going for the science and for the betterment of mancind.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion to the story
of one Douglas Mawson. So I hope you've enjoyed that.
We definitely enjoyed talking about it, and I hope that
inspires you to go on your own little journey of
a self discovery or maybe finding a hobby or a passion,
something that you can dedicate a little bit more of
your life too. I think it's very, very important. I
(50:05):
don't think you need to follow it to the ends
of the earth until your souls are falling off your feet.
But who am I to judge? And of course, next
time you see one hundred dollar bill and you see
that face there, you'll actually know what it's all about.
Until well, I mean, it's still there, right like I haven't. God,
I haven't seen one hundred dollars bill in years.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
I think it is. I'm just gonna check.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Because I know at the moment. There's obviously talk about
redesigning the five dollar note after Queen Elizabeth passed away
a few years back, and there's been talk about not
having them like a monarchy on the five dollar bill
again because I and I think there are better candidates
for it.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Honestly, Unfortunately he has been pulled off. Unfortunately he's no
longer on the newly redesigned one hundred dollar bill with
the clear window through it. It's Nellie Melburgh and John Monash.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Who are they?
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Nellie Melburgh I know is an opera singer. I fuck knows.
You don't know who John Nash other than Monash University.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, so there will be a new five dollar bill
in the future, I believe, because yeah, there were a
lot of there's this weird contingent of monicas in this country.
They get really upset if you want to take the
monarchy like I think, it's just a being beholden to
quote unquote traditional values. But who do you think should
be on the five dollar bill? I'd love to hear
your thoughts. You can reach out to us on the
(51:24):
Week crap in Australia Facebook page or other social media
just like putting Weird Crap in Australia into the search bar.
You can also track us down via good old fashioned email.
Week crap In Australia at gmail dot com. Send us
through all your comments, episode suggestions, feedback. We'd love to
hear all of that. You can also help us out
here at wee crap in Australia. You can check out
(51:46):
our Patreon forri only five dollars a month. You get
access to bonus minisodes as well as ad free episodes
released to you early. You can also check out our
week Crap in Australia book series at Volume under five
is available now. Our volume Stickers is coming out in September.
We in the process of designing the cover right now
with the good made Ignisioy.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
It's almost done.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yes, I saw another update today. It's looking absolutely fantastic.
So for all you book enthusiasts, number six is on
its way to be added to your collection. If you'd
like to grab the physical copy, we will have stock
with our great mates at Impact Comics dot com dot
Au if you're living here in Australia. If you're living internationally,
you'll be able to pick up a print on demand
copy from our print on demand website at lulu dot com.
(52:30):
That's l u lu dot com. And if you just
prefer a unclutded and minimalistic lifestyle. You can pick up
the digital version of the Kindle Shop. And last but
not least, if you'd like to wear your weir crap
prind straight on your chest, you can grab a shirt, mug, hat, bathmatt, bath, curtain,
you name it. It's all on our red bubble and
(52:52):
tea public storefronts. Just typing weir craping Australian into the
search engine for all those wonderful exigner designs, many of
them from our great mat Ignatio and just again, we
are setting up our YouTube channel with remastered episodes. That's
going to be coming soon if it's not out already.
We've got some lovely stuff going on there as well.
(53:13):
And does our customer. We give Holly the final words.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
So I went digging. Mowson was on the paper note,
which was redesigned in nineteen ninety six. After that they
replaced him with I believe it's frasier. I'd rather see
Mawson on it, honestly. But yeah, so you won't find
I don't think you'll find a Morson bank note hanging
around unless you're a collector, or which point it's probably
worth about two hundred USD here at the moment, so
keep hold of that.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely Holly. Well there you go, research on
the fly. Gotta love it. Well, that's it from us
from another episode of Weird Crap in Australia. Thank you
so much for joining us and we'll see you all
next week for more Weird Crap in Australia. Until then,
bye for now bye. The Weird Crap in Australia podcast
(54:08):
is produced by Holly and Matthew Soul for the Modern Meltdown.
If you've enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review on
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