The Disastrous Australasian Antarctic Expedition [Short Documentary] 

I can't believe I've never heard this before, I love tales of Arctic and Antarctic exploration from that era. I honestly thought all three must have died and the story only told through their found journals. Hard to imagine surviving through all that with his injuries in that place, and before more modern medicine. Thank you so much for telling an amazing story so well!

The amount of punishment the human body and mind can withstand is amazing and horrifying poor men. Never heard of this one before, you've gotten yourself a new sub!

The arctic explorers truly had a horrific time of it. I’m both fascinated and horrified by their accounts of living and dying in the Great White Nothing. I can’t begin to imagine the amount of strength and willpower it took for Mawson to survive and reach the base. It reminds me of Shackleton’s crew’s voyage to South Georgia. Completely awe inspiring. Although it was heartbreaking to hear Mawson’s accounts of the ptsd he suffered from. That is something that is often left out of the historical accounts. I love the content on this channel.

I'd heard of Mawson, but never his story. No horror writer could conceive a story as fantastic and scary as what he and his companions must have faced. Thank you for sharing this.

I (Brit) had never heard of this incredible expedition before. I hope your video draws more attention to these brave men. The expedition seems to have been overshadowed (at least in the UK) by the history of Amundsen, Scott, and Shackleton.

Absolutely wonderful narration as per routine! Love your work Basgin! Keep it up bro☺️

great video. i did not know about this expedition

I can’t believe he made it back. Incredible story of survival!

A fascinating tale of Antarctica that I was totally unaware of. Thanks for posting this story of endurance,tradegy and survival

Spare a thought for those wonderful sled dogs. They're putting in serious work.

Nothing but a human can survive like this, jeez. Nearly cried.

I consider myself fairly well read, but I'd never heard of these brave souls. You've got a new subscriber, with love from Canada.

Wow! Just found your channel. I love adventure stories, but if this had been a movie it would have been hard to believe Looking forward to more videos

Beautifully told, real quality of details making quite an emotional experience! Thank you ☺

That's one heck of a bada** right there! And definitely interesting that it turned out to be so good in terms of their research that they stayed that extra time. Thanks for sharing the story, very interesting

To those previously unaware. Home of the Blizzard is mawsons telling of the tale.great and harrowing book. This mini doc is a fantastic overview,big fan,but there is so much more.

"For skill and science give me amundsen, for steady courageous command give me shackleton, but for sheer blind persistent optimism in the face of certain horrifying death, give me Douglas Mawson." - me

Excellent video. Found your channel a couple days ago and enjoy what I've seen. Thanks and keep up the great work

Just found your GREAT channel well done!

Wow mate. Amazing story Keep doing what your doing, you are good at this, just as good as the rest!

Always captivating and very sad, for they had to endure.

This tale of survival is bat shit crazy. Love it. Subscribed.

Love this one ❤ 🇦🇺 Great work and quality as always, thanks 👍

Mawson actually murdered Xavier and ate parts of him which is why he went to the trouble of burying him. But of course, that doesn't fit the hero narrative

BEAUTIFUL rip to these valiant brave men

Antarctic explorers face the same horrors that jungle and desert explorers face, plus freezing. All of them have my utmost respect. But to think the man fully recovered from the experience he had in the Antarctic makes me doubt it -- I'd be willing to bet the internal scarring never went away.

And that's why you distribute food and other supplies between all parties involved.

I thought I knew this story- there is something very similar where the guy didn't make it and they only found his Journal. The happy ending was a pleasant surprise!

Amazing story, humans dont belong in places as harsh as this

great channel

Whilst I did like the video, I would like to point out a couple of things, which I have learned by reading Huxley's "Scott of The Antarctic", "The Accursed Land" (Lennard Bickel) and the official record of Mawson's 1912 expedition, which was released as a book about 1923 and re-released decades later. So, here we go. I find the use of the word "disastrous" somewhat misleading. Look at the expedition overall. Three tasks were attempted by three separate parties. Two parties accomplished what they set out to do. Loss of life, yes, two men did die, which is tragic, but Scott lost five (including his own life) and lost the race the race to the pole. Scott refused to take advice from Nansen, who said takes dogs, dogs and dogs, instead Scott took dogs, but also took ponies (useless) and motorised sleds (useless) and intended to "man haul" to the pole and back, weighed down (on the return journey) with about a tonne of geological samples. Always wondered why these were not jettisoned and collected later. As they died only a mile from One Ton Depot, dragging that weight might have made all the difference. Huxley writes "they man hauled the sleds like true Englishmen (but Evans was Welsh) and died like true Englishmen" spare me, that sort of BS is for an earlier time, if there ever was a time. Shackelton was credited with not losing a life on his trans polar expedition, but this is not entirely true. Everyone (well, nearly everyone) forgets the Ross Sea Party. Their task, successfully completed, was to establish a series of supply dumps from the coast at Ross Sea to the pole, so Shackelton's group could survive once they had reached the pole and start the second half of their journey. These men were not rescued until 1917, years after the main party were back in Britain. Three died of scurvy. So let's look at loss of life. Scott 5, Shackelton 3 and Mawson 2. Scott failed to reach the pole first, Shackelton's venture failed and Mawson's party completed 2 of the 3 tasks. Of course Amundsen was successful and no lives lost. So "disastrous" is laying it on a bit thick. Using all criteria Mawson's expedition was second only to Amundsen's dash to the pole, so hardly disastrous. We come now to the offer made to Mawson to join Scott's 1912 expedition. Mawson had originally requested to "hitch a ride" with Scott and get dropped off at Commonwealth Bay. Scott refused and offered Mawson a spot, not only on the expedition but promised a place in the polar party. Mawson stated that he would only accept a spot if he was made scientific director, a position already occupied by Wilson. Mawson did not like Wilson, the animosity was mutual. This meant that Mawson had to plan his expedition separately and in its entirety. Lastly (and somewhat tongue in cheek) what an interesting pronunciation of Macquarie. It is not pronounced Mac-Wherey, but Mac-Quarry. But then, kiwis, yes?😁😁 worth reading for anyone who is interested - www.goodreads.com/book/show/1156180.This_accursed_land

"May the dog help us"

I read about this in library a long time ago.Thought I was the only one.Thank u for your doc.Was very informative.Great job.The Antarctica could still use more exploration.

So don't keep your shelter, food, and transportation (dog food) on the same sled. Now we know.

There's a full documentary somwwhere on this. I saw it back in the 80's as part of the bbc 2 open university that used to come on in the middle of the night.

I heard the 245 mile wind and then learned that it wasn't even winter

Loving the channel and making my way through all your videos. I really hope it takes off and allows you to keep making such excellent videos. It really is one of the very best I've found on RU-vid and your delivery is brilliant - relaxing but also gripping.

Did you just say they built a structure to work and live in with winds at 240 kilometers per hour? 😮

i read book about this guy. the name of the book is surviours

Mitsubishi cars made in Adelaide were painted in a white called Mawson White😅.

👍👍

Those guys were a tough breed

I will never understand why these savage people go on these insane basically suicide missions. But dude really is a savage and seeing all the death and carnage of his mission buddies. Amazing will to live.

What a badass treated his snowblindness with cocaine

Rest in peace Xavier mertz and ninnis

Hard men

He's one bad mother

Should have taken a Norwegian, just one would have saved them .

It doesn’t snow in Antarctica. Blizzards are just old snow swirling around.

The guy survived all of that and still came out pretty sane and not a cannibal... Super impressive. Great story.

Aussie Aussie Aussie!!! 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

Loo tenant Nimmis ?

i suspect younger people under 50 have zero appreciation for this. i can only imagine the fullness of life for these men. nowadays, nobody actually lives because they do it all virtually. they don't even call each other or read. better to die on the ice under the stars than live in this excuse for a world we live in here. haven't seen a star in decades.

Some men cannot accept going bald😅.

Hang on hang on hang on. They put ALL their food on ONE sled?????? ,

How many frozen corpses litter the Antarctic continent from the last 100 years? I wonder if people ever managed to reach it thousands of years ago.

I'm still trying to read up on the brilliant people that made this documentary. Intrepid Men like Mawson ,John Glenn and Bell is who I really admonished in my heart not Elvis Presley and James Brown thank you for the upload. Yes I'm that old

I just discovered your channel a few days ago. I am so glad I did. You get the essential elements of every story without getting bogged down in details. If I was still teaching about Antarctica (in university courses) I would have my students watch this 16 minute video and then discuss it for the remainder of the time. Your work should be more popular among teachers. Anyone watching these videos should share them far and wide. Thanks again for your amazing work.

I went to Antarctica in 2018 and one of my uncles spent a year on the ice at McMurdo base in the 1970's. I have been captivated by Antartica all my life. Since my return, I speak at a local elementary school about the great explorers from 100 years ago. Thanks for an Antarctica story I hadn't heard.

damn and I'm one of that dudes closest living relatives

Your videos get more and more intriguing and well put together as each one comes out. Not that they needed to “get better”, mind you, but it’s awesome to see you finding your groove, dude. Thanks for the solid entertainment and information!

Great video, thank you. I remember reading somewhere that there is actually speculation as to whether the story Mawson told is 100% true, particularly the account of Mertz's death. Some speculate that, on the brink of dying from starvation and being so far away from base, Mawson murdered Mertz and ate him. I suppose we could never truly know, but for me, I take Mawson's account and entire story at face value.

What a test of endurance!

I would personally love to see more Antarctic survival and exploration stories.

So happy to see you are back. Keep these videos coming.

Amazing video!

It amazes me how, back in the day, teams embarked on antarctic expeditions without the life-sustaining properties of modern fabrics. They must've just been wet all the time. Which is highly dangerous in antarctic temperatures.

Love your channel. Just today I watched all of your collection. I find it extremely interesting to hear these stories unknown to me. This one was very good.

Absolutely fascinating, real history!!!🙏👍👻

what a calm sound . love you

Absolute chad of a man, loved the video!

Great video! Very interesting story. I would love to travel to the Antarctic.

Subbed=) I read somewhere that husky meat is kind of poisonous to human to eat similar thing that polar bear meat is.

Awesome videos man and there is nothing wrong with your accent, hello from Stewart island New Zealand haha

Tragig is thay Chile explorers found an ancient city overthere and the pentagon found out and kick them out from there now they are the only ones who can go to that place..forbiden for the rest of the planet

11:31 Awful, very similar to radiation exposure.

could of just asked the brits and that dog sled guy they would of told them not to bother lol

That was brilliant and mawson is a warrior and legend.

Thanks 👍

Shackleton was IRISH

👍

Poor dogs, no choice for them.

Wow. You did SUCH A GOOD JOB on this one my friend. Never heard this story before. And u sure made it interesting

love stories like this

Aww, pengwings

What an incredible story. Thanks for sharing it, Basgin!

Question is did Mawson eat Mertz.

Great job and thank you. Like 🙂

So crazy he managed to survive, I don’t think I would have made it.

What a tough and intelligent human spirit..!

#australian we are not part of Asia!!!!!!!!!

Found your Chris Lemons video in my recommended and have been watching through the rest of your stuff and the quality and effort you put in is amazing! Keep it up mate! Can't wait to see what else you do :)

Excellent work. Amazing story of duty, dedication, and service. Rick

Very interesting and the presentation is excellent,,thank you

The Ozzies probably shouldn't have insisted on wearing their shorts..