{"id":15072,"date":"2009-01-01T02:05:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T02:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/food-cache-for-1911-14-australasian-antarctic-expedition-found-after-nearly-100-years-2\/"},"modified":"2009-01-01T02:05:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-01T02:05:00","slug":"food-cache-for-1911-14-australasian-antarctic-expedition-found-after-nearly-100-years-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2009\/01\/food-cache-for-1911-14-australasian-antarctic-expedition-found-after-nearly-100-years-2\/","title":{"rendered":"FOOD CACHE FOR 1911-14 AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION FOUND AFTER NEARLY 100 YEARS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mawsons-huts.org.au\/cms\/wp-content\/gallery\/structures\/hutroof.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mawsons-huts.org.au\/cms\/wp-content\/gallery\/structures\/hutroof.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><br \/>A food depot established by the 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) led by the legendary Sir Douglas Mawson, has been discovered nearly 100 years later by  a small team of explorers led by Greg Mortimer, founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.auroraexpeditions.com.au\/\">Aurora Expeditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The cache is at Madigan Nunatak (Nunatak is the Antarctic term for a rocky peak surrounded by ice), named after Cecil Madigan, a geologist with Mawson\u2019s AAE who established the food store in case of emergency for sledging parties.<\/p>\n<p>Found this week, it is 70 kms east-south east of Cape Denison which was the AAE\u2019s base for two years and which is now being conserved by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mawsons-huts.org.au\/\">Mawson\u2019s Huts Foundation<\/a> which currently has a team of eight working on Mawson\u2019s Huts for the next four weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Mortimer, the managing director of Aurora Expeditions and a member of the first Australian team to climb Mt Everest., flew by helicopter from his ship the <span>Marina Svetaeva<\/span>, which is carrying 100 passengers on an Antarctic cruise to Mawson\u2019s Huts. On board is a grand-daughter of Madigan, Julia Butler.<\/p>\n<p>Attempts to find Madigan Nunatak in the 1980\u2019s failed with ice covering the rocky peak and only a long bamboo pole protruding from the cache sighted in 1985.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been trying to get to Madigan Nunatak for years\u201d said Mortimer from onboard the Marina Svetaeva. \u201cThis year we were in the right place at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a tiny ridge in the white expanse of the polar plateau about 2400 feet above sea level. We observed a cairn surmounted by a tin consistent in shape and construction with kerosene tins associated with the AAE\u201d he said. \u201cThe tin contains at least three calico bags held in place by a rock. One contains white powder, probably flour and the other a brown substance, possibly pemmican (a food mix favoured by the AAE on sledging parties).<\/p>\n<p>The long bamboo pole which marked the spot for the AAE still remains but now lies on the rocks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mawsons-huts.org.au\/cms\/wp-content\/gallery\/historical-images\/thumbs\/thumbs_oldhut5.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mawsons-huts.org.au\/cms\/wp-content\/gallery\/historical-images\/thumbs\/thumbs_oldhut5.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a>The Mawson\u2019s Huts Foundation team which was landed by a <span>Marina Svetaeva <\/span>eight days ago is carrying out an extensive works programme which includes locating the first aircraft ever taken to the Antarctic and fitting out a special laboratory to conserve the thousands of artefacts left inside the hut when the AAE left for home in December 1913.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A food depot established by the 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) led by the legendary Sir Douglas Mawson, has been discovered nearly 100 years later by a small team of explorers led by Greg Mortimer, founder of Aurora Expeditions. The cache is at Madigan Nunatak (Nunatak is the Antarctic term for a rocky peak surrounded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[336],"class_list":["post-15072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aurora-expeditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}