I do not know if anyone is interested in a bit of reading. it may be of interest for some.
In 1968 my father, Stan Murcutt went on an expedition on an Australian Antarctic base called Mawson, named after the famous explorer.
Here is is story, of his adventures down south.
Here is My story...My Antarctic Adventure
http://trees.ancestry.com.au/tree/5223724/person/-1485581883/media/1?pg=
i hope you enjoy reading it.
I was 13, my sister dianne was 10, Susan 9 and melinda. was 5.
It was hard for uswhen Dad was gone, My mum obtained her drivers licence, as in those days not many wives had a licence, but we were in those days living in Clayton which was the outskits of Melbourne, Then, and so far away from Flemington, where mums sister, Elsie lived, and never been on our own, These days it would be different but it was not common in those days for the father to leve a family home alone.
We had great support from neighbours.
I wish i had some photos, but Dad accidently threw them out.
I hope you enjoy the reading, it maybe a bit long 222 pages but it is something different.
remember 1968, it was very basic at Mawson, Antarctica, they had huskies, sled, they did not have the big snow mobiles you see now, there was i am told a VW, but you could not go faster than 5 kms an hour.
This Mawson base i believe is now abandoned, and a new space age base is there now.
One thing the men were sent down to do was to measure the ice shelf, which in 1968, they calculated it had shrunk 6 inches.
They did discover a water lilly, at the bottom of a frozen lake.
this is the first sign of any plant life down there.
I remember Dad saying they did go fishing, and the fish they caught down there was hideous, as they have very different looking fish, down the antarctic.
And they often had to go to far away shelfs to count how many penguins were in each rookerie, so that they could keep an eye on how the species was breeding.
These were very early days for Antarctic exploration.
He and a couple of others ventured on land that had not been travelled across in history, and apparantly there is a mountain or peak named after him down there.
I hope you enjoy something a little different.
The only way i could put this up is a link to a page i am setting up on the family tree.
2 comments:
That's interesting. Never heard of Mawson previously. Learned something new, so this day is not wasted :-)
The Antarctic at the time, were allowed to have the huskies for s;eds.
They were the only introduced species to the continant. And they were progeny from the original huskies that went down there, they were only imported once to down there.
They were pretty wild, and although good on the sledges, had to be kept apart as they would savage each other.
About 10-12 years ago, it was decided, to keep Antarctica as in it's original habitatm so that it is the only place in the world that has been unaffected by humans.
as all stock and waste is staken away, nothing dumpred down there, so it stays prestine.
So now there are no huskies down there, and other than humans, there are only the native animals that live there, ...seals, walruss, penguins, and a few birds.
Whales.
It was an experience for my dad, after reading a book when he was small, about the journey of Mawson, and then it is was his dream.
Although we did not want him to go, my mum never wanted to be in the way of his dream.
Post a Comment