Antarctic Vignettes VII: The search for S. Tasman- postscript

Tasman Spaulding served as an Able Seaman on the S.Y. Terra Nova on the 1903–1904 voyage to Antarctica. A clerical error that reversed his given and family names meant he never knew of the bronze Polar Medal awarded for his services on the expedition. For the last 108 years the incorrectly named medal has languished in the archives of the Royal Mint in the United Kingdom but has been released for display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart

Antarctic vignettes I: Mawson's sailmaker- James Forbes

A photograph by Frank Hurley of the sailmaker on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-14 is identified as the Dundee whalerman, James Forbes

Rotifers, and other aquatic invertebrates, from the Larsemann Hills, Antarctica

Seventeen species of rotifer (11 Monogononta and six Bdelloidea) three tardigrades, two arthropods, as well as protozoans, a plathyhelminth and nematodes were found in 13 freshwater lakes in the Larsmann Hills, Antartctic

Additions to the freshwater fauna of Heard Island

Freshwater collections from Heard Island yielded a fauna of protozoans, one species of platyhelminth, two species of tardigrades, at least four species of nematodes, 16 species of rotifer (including two new species and four new records for the island), one species of enchytraeid worm, and nine species of arthropod (four anomopodans, two copepods and three mites). No ostracods were found, nor was any evidence of insects with aquatic or semi-aquatic larvae

Antarctic vignettes VIII: Unsung heroes — researching the crew of the S.Y. Aurora 1911–1914.

The Steam Yacht Aurora made three voyages to the Antarctic and two to the sub-Antarctic during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) 1911–1914. All told, 56 men served as members of the crew on these voyages. Most served on one or two voyages only, with just five men (four officers and one seaman) serving on all five. While the officers are reasonably well documented many of the seamen remain unknown though recent research has uncovered details of some of these unsung heroes of the AAE

Antarctic vignettes VI: Leslie Russell Blake — Mawson’s forgotten geologist.

Leslie Russell Blake was a young Australian surveyor and geologist of great talent who made an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of Macquarie Island whilst a member of Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) during 1911–1914. He was a member of the five-man team that spent nearly two years on Macquarie Island establishing their base at the northern end of the island. Blake spent much of his time away from the base surveying and making geological observations. His topographical map of the island was the standard until modern techniques such as aerial photography, satellite imagery, airborne synthetic aperture radar and GPS technology enabled the island to be mapped in detail. During the First World War Blake served with the Australian Imperial Forces and was awarded a Military Cross for a survey of the front line before the attack at Pozières. His death just days before the end of the First World War meant that he never finished writing up his scientific notes. It says much for the quality of his field reports that Douglas Mawson was eventually able to publish the work. Sadly, the fact that it was not published until 1943, and then only under Mawson’s name, meant that Leslie Russell Blake has been largely forgotten

Bob Dingle – pathfinder at war and in the Antarctic

Bob Dingle (1920–2016) retired in 1975 to Swansea, Tasmania, after an adventurous and peripatetic working life. During the Second World War he served with Bomber Command. He was a wireless operator with 78 and 35 Squadrons, was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Medal and was commissioned. After the war he migrated to Australia and in 1950 joined the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology as a trainee weather observer with the express intention of serving in the Antarctic. Over the next 25 years he wintered seven times with the Australian and United States Antarctic programs, was awarded the Queen’s Polar Medal with two clasps and served as the senior Australian weather observer for four years on the US Navy Ship Eltanin

Antarctic vignettes III: Shackleton's AB- William Frederick Williams

William Frederick Williams was bom in Tasmania in 1866. He joined Ernest Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition, signing on in the name of W. Williams, and served as an AB (Able Seaman) on the Steam Yacht Nimrod on her second voyage south (1908-09). On return to Tasmania he tried his hand at a variety of jobs before settling in the Lakes district of Tasmania as the manager of guest houses catering for trout fishermen in the 1920s. He retired to Lorne, Victoria, and died in Melbourne in 1964 aged 77

The freshwater fauna of the South Polar Region: A 140-year review

The metazoan fauna of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic freshwaters is reviewed. Almost 400 species, notably rotifers, tardigrades and crustaceans have been identified. Sponges, molluscs, amphibians, reptiles and fishes are absent though salmonid fishes have been successfully introduced on some of the sub-Antarctic islands. Other alien introductions include insects (Chironomidae) and annelid worms (Oligochaeta). The fauna is predominately benthic in habitat and becomes increasingly depauperate at higher latitudes. Endemic species are known but only a few are widely distributed. Planktonic species are rare and only one parasitic species has been note

The rotifers of Heard Island: Preliminary survey, with notes on other freshwater groups

Twenty rotifers (three Bdelloidea and 17 Monogononta, including new species of Encentrum and Notholca), a platyhelminrh, gasrrotrich, two nematodes, two tardigrades, one enchyrraeid worm, four cladoccrans, rwo copcpods and three species of mites were recovered from five small pools on Heard Island. The results indicate that the Heard Island fauna is closer to chat of Signy Island and Macquarie Island than to that of the much nearer Kerguelen archipelago