The Douglas Mawson Antarctic Expedition of 1912 is one of the most amazing feats of endurance of all time. Although his two companions perished, Douglas Mawson survived, but how? In a bold historical experiment, adventurer Tim Jarvis retraces the gruelling experience, with similar meagre rations, primitive clothing and equipment to uncover what happened to Mawson physically—and mentally—as a man hanging on the precipice of life and death.
Tim Jarvis is an environmental scientist, adventurer and author with Masters qualifications in Environmental Science and Environmental Law. He has undertaken unsupported expeditions to some of the world’s most remote regions, including to the South and North Poles, and across Australia’s largest desert, the Great Victoria. His environmental work is mainly focused on sustainable aid provision in developing countries. Current projects include livelihood improvement projects in India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. He holds the world record for the fastest unsupported journey to the South Pole and the longest unsupported journey in Antarctica. In 2004 he was awarded the Australian Geographic Society’s ‘Spirit of Adventure’ medal for his kayak journey down the Warburton river and trek across Australia’s largest salt lake, Lake Eyre.
Tim is a well known public speaker, talking regularly to a wide range of audiences, including industry, conference groups and the public, and has a long history of working with sponsors and the media. His talks are motivated by a belief that people should take a more active role in the direction their lives take at both a business and personal level. He also uses his expeditions to the world’s ice caps to promote the importance of improved environmental sustainability in our increasingly interconnected world. He is author of two books - the bestseller ‘The Unforgiving Minute’ (Random House) about his 3 polar expeditions to date and “Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica” the book based on the international documentary film of the same name.
Tim’s most recent expedition was a retracing of Sir Douglas Mawson’s incredible polar survival journey of 1912/13. The modern expedition used the same clothing, equipment and starvation rations as Mawson had available to him, on a journey where both of Mawson’s colleagues died.
Free resources to download
The Film
The documentary of the expedition ‘Mawson Life and Death in Antarctica’ aired on the ABC on 11th May 2008 as flagship of the Film Australia ‘Making History’ series, and formed part of Channel 4’s highly acclaimed ‘Edge of Endurance’ series in Britain in late 2007.The project enjoyed the patronage of the then Australian Prime Minister the Hon John Howard and the Hon Alexandra Shackleton (granddaughter of Sir Ernest Shackleton).
‘Mawson Life and Death in Antarctica’ was finalist for the best documentary film at the Graz Mountain and Adventure Film Festival, Austria, 2008; won best documentary at the International Festival of Mountain Films Poprad, Slovakia, 2008 (for the combination of highest production values, documentary skill, the excellence of archival research and the risk taking of the subjects involved); and won the award for the best director at the highly prestigious Jules Verne Film Festival in Los Angeles (Oct 2008).
Publisher
The book version of ‘Mawson Life and Death in Antarctica’ is published by Melbourne University Publishing (MUP). Founded in Melbourne Australia in 1922, MUP prides itself on publishing "books with ‘spine’ - the best of contemporary writing and scholarship to diiscerning readers". Contact details: Melbourne University Publishing Ltd, 187 Grattan Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053 Australia. email: Dina Kluska (Publicity Manager) dkluska@unimelb.edu.au
Review excerpts
“Why would anyone want to relive the hardships suffered by Sir Douglas Mawson during his Antarctic adventures of 1912-13? Mawson lost both his colleagues to the conditions. Explorer Jarvis sets out to retrace the great man's footsteps using as close to Mawson's original equipment as possible and with an ABC camera crew in tow. The photography is magnificent, the account both moving and unnerving.”
-The Sunday Times
“Tim Jarvis isn’t the first to write about Mawson. There have been a few decent books on the subject. ... But Jarvis is the first to get his hands dirty, by reenacting the polar scientist’s entire fateful journey. Mawson is Jarvis’s account of how author and subject, divided by almost a century, pushed themselves beyond the conventional limits of human endurance and came back to tell the tale.”
--UK Book Dealer
