MAWSON EXPEDITION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1275, 2 November 1911, Page 5

MAWSON EXPEDITION.

'A' WIRELESS STATION. Bj Telegraph—Press Association—OoDTrleM Adelaide, Novomber 1. Dr. Mawson states that ho will establish a wireless station on Macquarie Island. Owing to tho quantity of equipnient necessary, ho will take a second steamer as far as tho island.

Most people, if asked to name Austran s t outermost dependency, would answer that it was Papua, or Lord Howe, or Norfolk Islands. But they aro not tho farthest outposts of tho Commonwealth nor the loneliest. That-distinction belongs to Macquarie Island, lying in Antarctic waters, nearly a thousand miles south of Ilobart. I 1 or many years it was a dependency of Tasmania, and when Federation was accomplished it became part of tho Commonwealth. The island is about 22 miles long, mountainous in character, and carries a scrubby stunted growth! Mr. Ainsworth, who is at present acting as relieving officer at the Adelaide Observatory, will havo charge of Dr. Mawson's wireless station, and he will be accompanied by a geologist, a biologist, and a wireless operator. There are several good anchorages on the island, but no landing facilities, and Dr. Mawson says that there may be difficulty in petting the tents, apparatus, anil stores ashore.