Jade Hameister
At the age of 14 her ‘polar quest’ began with a 150 km journey across thin ice to the North Pole. Then came a 550 km traverse of the Greenland icecap. By the age of 16 she had trekked 600 km from the Ross Ice Shelf to the South Pole. For Australian teenager Jade Hameister…
Shirase Nobu
Scorned at departure, celebrated upon return, Shirase Nobu would defy scepticism in Japan and abroad and, in doing so, forge a unique path into the heart of Antarctica. At age 11, Shirase Nobu would write in a diary of his obsession with the North and South poles. 38 years later he would set off…
Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd
He was many things: esteemed pilot, Medal Of Honor winner, Arctic pioneer, logistical expert. However Byrd’s legacy is most known for efforts exploring the Antarctic. After a career in the United States Navy and service in the First World War, Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr would fly into history as a groundbreaking aviator, explorer and director…
Captain Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Scott is known for beating and in turn being beaten by the perils of the Antarctic. The histories of Antarctica and Captain Robert Falcon Scott will forever be intertwined, his story inspiring and cautionary, stirring and tragic. Scott’s Discovery expedition in 1901 had discovered a vast and incredibly challenging landscape. That journey made the…
Ernest Shackleton
The spirit of the ‘Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration’ was epitomised in the man named Shackleton. Early Antarctic explorer Sir Raymond Priestley described the strength of his peers by saying, “Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray…
Douglas Mawson
Mawson was more than a man devoted to scientific exploration; he was also the hero of one of the Antarctic’s most extraordinary tales of lone survival. Sir Douglas Mawson’s first taste of the Antarctic was as a 26-year-old geologist aboard Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition. It was on this journey that Mawson would first…
Roald Amundsen
On the 14th of December, 1911, an intrepid Norwegian explorer took humanity to the South Pole. The first man to arrive at the South Pole was renowned for his keen intellect and ruthless efficiency. You don’t travel through the world’s most testing environment to arrive at this point by accident. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen…