Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-14. Scientific Reports. Series A, Vol. I

1942

Expedition Reports Q115 A8 1911

Sydney: Government Printer

Douglas Mawson, an Australian geologist, was a key figure, with Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton, in the so-called ‘Heroic Age’ (1900-1917) of Antarctic exploration. Mawson and his crew, including Dunedin man and trouble-maker Leslie Whetter (second from left in Fig. 1 here), left Tasmania in December 1911, aboard the barque Aurora for this expedition. Whetter had attended Otago Boys High School and while being corporally punished, for poor hand-writing, punched the teacher in the mouth. He graduated from Otago Medical School and became assistant surgeon on Mawson’s expedition. The two ‘locked horns’ as Whetter was an idle layabout who continually shirked his expedition duties. On the expedition’s return, WWI had already broken out. True-to-form, Whetter did all he could to avoid his conscription in 1917.