Tom Griffiths.
An ANU historian is swapping the sweltering Australian summer for the icy sheets of Antarctica as part of a historic journey commemorating the nation's first expedition to the great southern continent. Professor Tom Griffiths, an Antarctic and environmental historian in the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, has joined the Australian Antarctic Division's centennial voyage to Mawson's Huts at Commonwealth Bay. The journey marks 100 years since Douglas Mawson's epic expedition of 1911 to 1914. Mawson led the first Australian expedition to Antarctica, during which time he and his team carried out scientific observations and detailed mapping of the icy continent, providing the basis for Australia's territorial claims and the nation's ongoing presence on the ice. Professor Griffiths and the other members of the expedition set out this morning from Hobart on the icebreaker Aurora Australis . The ship, which was meant to set out on 31 December 2011, was delayed in the Antarctic by bad weather. Professor Griffiths said it was entirely appropriate that the frozen continent should dictate the timing of the centennial visit to Mawson's Huts.
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