The discovery and exploration of Antarctica: a timeline
ANCIENT TIMES
Greek philosophers Pythagoras and
Aristotle both deduce the planet is a sphere. The ancient Greeks also theorise the existence of the landmass Terra Australis Incognita, presuming it balanced land in the north. European explorers probe ever southwards.
16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES
1520 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan finds the strait between Tierra del Fuego and continental South America that now bears his name. 1578 Englishman Francis Drake is blown off course and discovers the Drake Passage. 1592 Englishman John Davis discovers the
Falkland Islands. 1616 Dutchman Willem Schouten discovers Cape Horn and is the first to round the southern extremity of
South America. 1675 London merchant Antoine de la Roche shelters in the lee of an island – probably South Georgia. “Islands of ice” are noted by mariners; they are later more generally known as icebergs – from the Dutch ijs (ice) + berg (hill).
18TH CENTURY
Island discoveries continue and commercial exploitation begins. Frenchmen Jean-Baptiste Bouvet de Lozier (1739), Marion du Fresne (1772) and Yves Joseph de Kerguélen-Trémarec (1772) discover islands in the South Atlantic and Southern oceans respectively: Bouvet Island; Prince Edward and the Crozet islands; and the Kerguelen Islands. 1772–75 James Cook circumnavigates Antarctica with the ships the Resolution and the Adventure on his second great voyage of discovery. He becomes the first navigator to venture inside the Antarctic Circle. He lands on South Georgia (1775) and discovers the South Sandwich Islands. 1788 Sealing commences on South Georgia. By 1820 up to 1.2 million seals have been killed on the island.
19TH CENTURY
Sealing intensifies, the continent is sighted, and landings are made. 1806 Englishman Abraham Bristow discovers the Auckland Islands south of
New Zealand. 1810 Australian Frederick Hasselborough discovers Macquarie Island, south of Tasmania. Sealing soon commences. 1819 Englishman William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and, with Irish-born sailor Edward Bransfield, also discovers Elephant and Clarence islands. 1819–20 More than 80,000 seals are killed on the South Shetland Islands. 1820 American Nathaniel Palmer finds a way into the flooded caldera of Deception Island, which becomes a safe anchorage for sealing ships and, later, whaling vessels. 1820 Russian explorer
Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen is the first to sight the Antarctic continent, on 27 January 1820. He circumnavigates Antarctica with the
Vostok and the Mirny and sails closer than Cook to the continent. 1820 American Nathaniel Palmer sights the Antarctic Peninsula on 17 November 1820. 1821 English-born American John Davis is probably the first to land on the continent, at Danco Coast on the Antarctic Peninsula, on 7 February 1821. 1823 Englishman James Weddell enters what is later named the Weddell Sea and reaches 74°15’S, a feat not bettered for a century. 1829 American James Eights conducts the first extensive scientific study of the South Shetland Islands. 1837–40 Frenchman JulesSébastien-César Dumont d’Urville skirts the Antarctic coastline south of Australia and lands on an offshore island. He names the nearby mainland Terre Adélie, for his wife. 1838–42 American Charles Wilkes leads a flotilla of six ships of the United States Exploring Expedition. Land is sighted south of Australia, and a sense of the extent of the Antarctic continent is first gained. 1839–43 British Royal Naval captain James Clark Ross searches to the south of New Zealand for the South Magnetic Pole. He discovers what later comes to be known as the Ross Sea, as well as a gargantuan floating ice barrier, the Ross Ice Shelf. 1853 American merchant captain John Heard sights an ice-covered island in the Southern Indian Ocean while en route to Melbourne. Heard Island becomes the last major landmass to be discovered. 1873 German Eduard Dallman commands the whaler Grönland, the first steamship to enter Antarctic waters. 1874 As part of a 69,000 nautical mile voyage – the greatest oceanographic expedition to date, HMS Challenger becomes the first steam-assisted vessel to sail above the Antarctic Circle. 1892 In search of new whaling grounds, Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen lands on Seymour Island near the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula and discovers the first fossils in Antarctica. 1892 Four ships of the Scottish Dundee Whaling Expedition search unsuccessfully for right whales in the Weddell Sea. 1895 Looking for new whaling grounds, Norwegians Henryk Bull and Carsten Borchgrevink make a landing at Cape Adare at the head of the Ross Sea, the first in East Antarctica. 1895 The International Geographical Congress meets in London and decides to promote Antarctica as the next area of global exploration. 1897–99 The Belgian Antarctic Expedition, led by Lieutenant Adrien de Gerlache, spends a winter trapped in the ice of the Bellingshausen Sea aboard the Belgica.
1898–1900
As leader of the
British Antarctic Expedition, Carsten Borchgrevink returns to Cape Adare. The expedition is mainly staffed by Norwegians and Lapps, but also includes Tasmanian physicist Louis Bernacchi. They are the first to endure an Antarctic winter on land.
THE HEROIC ERA
During the 20th century, national expeditions are launched, inland exploration occurs, territorial claims are made, permanent stations are set up, whaling takes place, the Antarctic Treaty is signed and science and tourism flourish. It all kicked off with the two decades that have since become enshrined as the Heroic Era. 1901–03 The German South Polar Expedition, led by Erich led von Drygalski, spends 14 months south of the Kerguelen Islands trapped in the ice aboard the Gauss. 1901–04 The British National Antarctic Expedition, led by Royal Navy commander Robert Falcon Scott, on the purpose-built Discovery, establishes a base on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound. Louis Bernacchi returns to Antarctica with Scott. A hot air balloon is used in Antarctica for the first time (1902). With Edward Wilson and Ernest Shackleton,
Scott reaches 82°S. Stricken with scurvy after two months, the trio is forced to retreat. 1901–04 The Swedish Antarctic Expedition, led by geologist Otto Nordenskjöld, explores the Weddell Sea region from Snow Hill Island. Their ship
Antarctic is crushed by ice and 20 men spend a winter on tiny Paulet Island. 1902–04 William Spiers Bruce leads the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition in the Scotia. They sight the Antarctic coast of Coates Land in the Weddell Sea and establish a meteorological station on Laurie Island in the South Orkneys, Antarctica’s first permanent station. 1903–10 Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Charcot mounts two expeditions: in the Français (1903–05), and the
Pourquoi pas? IV (1908–10). He explores and charts the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. 1904 Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen begins shore-based whaling on South Georgia. 1907–09 Ernest Shackleton leads the British Antarctic Expedition aboard the
Nimrod. With Frank Wild, Jameson Adams and Eric Marshall, Shackleton comes to within 97 geographical miles of the
South Pole on 9 January 1909. Australian geologists T.W. Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson make the first ascent of Mt Erebus.
1911 Roald Amundsen leads the Norwegian South Pole Expedition in the Fram. Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Oscar Wisting, Olav Bjaaland and Sverre Hassel reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911, the first to do so. 1910–12 Nobu Shirase leads the first Japanese Antarctic Expedition. The expedition explores the eastern sector of the Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf. 1910–13 Robert Falcon Scott leads the British Antarctic Expedition in the Terra
Nova. Scott reaches the South Pole with Edward Wilson, Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers, Edgar Evans and Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates on 18 January 1912. All die on the return journey. The expedition included Australians Frank Debenham and Thomas Griffith Taylor. 1911–13 Wilhelm Filchner leads the second German Antarctic Expedition in the
Deutschland. The ship is trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea and drifts for nine months through the winter of 1912. 1911–14 Douglas Mawson leads the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) in the
Aurora. He explores large sections of East Antarctica. Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz die while sledging with Mawson’s Far Eastern Party.
1914–17 Sir Ernest Shackleton leads the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–17) in the
Endurance (pictured here, trapped in the ice, in Frank Hurley’s famous photo), hoping to cross Antarctica from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea via the South Pole. A second party commanded by Aeneas Mackintosh is stationed in the Ross Sea. The Endurance is crushed by the ice of the Weddell Sea and sinks, after which the expedition eventually finds its way by open boat to Elephant Island. Shackleton and five others sail to South
Georgia to seek help. The Weddell Sea party includes Australian photographer
Frank Hurley, while fellow Australians
Dick Richards, Irvine Gaze and
Keith Jack are members of the
Ross Sea party.
THE MODERN ERA
1921 Maxime Lester and Thomas Bagshawe spend the winter in a makeshift hut at Waterboat Point on the coast of Graham Land after the British Imperial Expedition, led by John Cope, failed to proceed. 1922 Sir Ernest Shackleton leads the Shackleton-Rowett ( Quest) Expedition but dies at
South Georgia on 5 January 1922. The Quest continues under Frank Wild’s command. Australian Hubert Wilkins is a member of the expedition. This expedition marks the shift from the Heroic Era to the Mechanical Age of
Antarctic exploration. 1923 Pelagic whaling commences with factory ships operating in the Ross Sea. 1925 The Lancing, the first whaling factory ship with a stern slipway, arrives in Antarctic waters. 1925–39 Scott’s old ship the Discovery, and then the Discovery II, conduct scientific studies of whale stocks for the British government. 1927–37 Norwegian whaling entrepreneur Lars Christensen sends out expeditions to chart the Antarctic coast. Bouvet and Peter I islands are claimed for Norway and almost 4000km of coastline is explored. 1928 Australian Hubert Wilkins and American Ben Eielson make the first flights in Antarctica, taking off from Deception Island and flying over the Antarctic Peninsula during the Wilkins-Hearst Antarctic Expedition, 1928–29. 1929 In a 19-hour round trip from their base, Little America I, near the Bay of Whales in the Ross Sea, Americans Richard Byrd, Bernt Belchen, Harold June and Ashley McKinley fly over the South Pole. 1929–31 Sir Douglas Mawson leads the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expeditions over two summer cruises, using the Discovery. Large sections of the Antarctic coastline are charted and claimed for Britain. These claims later devolve to Australia. 1930 A Norwegian expedition under Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen encounters the Discovery. Riiser-Larsen and Mawson come to a “gentlemen’s agreement” over territorial claims. 1931 The first attempt at regulating pelagic whaling, the Geneva Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, is signed. 1934 Richard Byrd spends a winter alone at Advance Base, almost 200km from base Little America II. He was the first to do so and nearly died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
1935 Americans Lincoln Ellsworth and Herbert Hollick-Kenyon fly across Antarctica in four stages from Dundee Island near the Antarctic Peninsula to the Bay of Whales. 1935 Caroline Mikkelsen, wife of the captain of a Norwegian whaling factory ship, becomes the first woman to set foot on an Antarctic island, landing on the Tyrne Islands near the site of the present-day Davis Station. 1935–37 Australian John Rymill leads the British Graham Land Expedition. It explores the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula using a seaplane and dog teams, venturing as far south as Alexander Island.
1937Th e wife of Lars Christensen,
Ingrid Christensen, lands at Scullin Monolith and becomes the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic continent.
1937 Th e International Agreement on the Regulation of Whaling is signed in London. In the same year, the Antarctic pelagic whaling fleet kills 46,039 whales in one season, the highest total ever.
1939–41 Th e United States Services Expedition, under Richard Byrd, establishes Little America III base on the Bay of Whales. The team explores the coast of Marie Byrd Land by ship, sledges and aircraft.
1943–45 Th e British mount Operation Tabarin, a secret wartime effort to monitor and forestall German activity in the South Atlantic and Antarctic region, and to prevent Argentina from advancing territorial claims. Bases were set up at Deception Island and Port Lockroy. 1946–47 A US naval effort code-named Operation Highjump employs 4700 men, 13 ships and 23 aircraft in the largest Antarctic expedition to date. 1946–48 Jennie Darlington and Edith (Jackie) Ronne accompany their husbands, Harry Darlington and Finn Ronne, on the
Ronne Antarctic Expedition.
They overwinter at Stonington Island, becoming the first women to spend a year in Antarctica. 1947 Australian National Antarctic Expeditions (ANARE) commence. Expeditions are sent to establish bases on Heard and Macquarie islands. Heard Island’s sovereignty is ceded to Australia. 1948 Th e Australian Antarctic Division is established under the leadership of
Dr Phillip Law. 1949 The International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets for the first time. 1954 Australia abandons the station on Heard Island and establishes Mawson Station on the Antarctic continent.
1955–56Rear Admiral
George J. Dufek leads Operation Deep Freeze I, the first of an ongoing series of US missions to Antarctica. A Douglas DC-3 aircraft is landed at the South Pole in preparation for the International Geophysical Year (IGY).
1955–58 New Zealander
Sir Edmund Hillary and British explorer
Vivian Fuchs of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition meet at the South Pole on 19 January 1958. Hillary had driven Ferguson tractors from the Ross Sea to the pole, laying depots for Fuchs who had come from the Weddell Sea side. Fuchs continues to the Ross Sea and completes the first mechanised traverse of Antarctica.
1957 Th e IGY takes place. Antarctica is the focus of exploration and research, with 40 nations taking part. Americans build the Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole. More than 50 Antarctic bases are established by participating nations. 1957 Australia’s Davis Station is established in the ice-free Vestfold Hills.
1959 Twelve nations sign the Antarctic Treaty, setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve while establishing freedom of scientific investigation. All military activity is banned on the continent. 1961–65 Surveyor Syd Kirkby, the 2018 recipient of the Australian Geographic Society Lifetime of Adventure award, explores more of Antarctica than any other explorer. 1962 Americans install a nuclear power plant at McMurdo Station on Ross Island. 1965 Th e IWC protects the blue whale after alarming figures reveal only 20 individuals could be located during the previous Antarctic whaling season. 1966Th e last whaling station on South Georgia closes.
1966 Swedish- American Lars-Eric Lindblad pioneers Antarctic tourism by chartering an Argentine naval vessel for the first voyage with paying passengers. 1969 Th e Lindblad Explorer visits Antarctica, the first purpose-built tourist ship to do so. 1969 Australia’s Casey Station is established near the abandoned Wilkes Station, which was built by the Americans for the IGY. 1976 Dr Zoe Gardner serves as medical officer at Macquarie Island. She is the first woman to overwinter with the Australian Antarctic program. 1977 Qantas begins day excursion flights over Antarctica. 1979 Air New Zealand flight DC10, with
257 passengers and crew on board, crashes into Mt Erebus. There are no survivors. 1981 Dr Louise Holliday serves as medical officer at Davis Station. She becomes the first woman to overwinter at a continental Australian Antarctic station. 1982 The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) comes into force as part of the Antarctic Treaty system. 1982Th e IWC votes to end commercial whaling in Antarctic waters by 1986. Japan, Norway, Peru and the USSR object. 1987 Greenpeace establishes World Park Base at Cape Evans on Ross Island, with the intent of holding Antarctic Treaty nations to account. 1987 Japanese factory ship the Nisshin Maru No.3 and three catchers depart Japan on the first ‘scientific whaling’ voyage to Antarctica. 1988 Britain and Argentina briefly go to war on South Georgia as part of the wider Falkland Islands conflict. 1989 Diana Patterson serves as leader at Mawson Station. She is the first woman to lead an Australian Antarctic Station. 1989–90 Italian Reinhold Messner and German Arved Fuchs use Patriot Hills as a staging point for their crossing on foot of Antarctica via the South Pole. 1991 The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) is founded by seven companies. IAATO’s aim is to “advocate and promote the practice of safe and environmentally responsible private-sector travel to the Antarctic”.
1991Th e Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (Madrid Protocol) is adopted. Measures include an indefinite moratorium on mining exploration and mineral extraction. All non-native species (dogs) are removed. Parties to the Protocol commit to protect the environment of Antarctica
(defined as above 60°S). 2007 Australia commences its first direct air link to Antarctica with the opening of the Wilkins Blue Ice Runway, 70km inland from Casey Station.
2018 Th irty nations operate bases in Antarctica and use runways for air travel across the continent. There is a resident summer population at research stations of approximately 4000.
2018–19 For the summer of 2018–19, IAATO records 56,168 tourist visits to Antarctica. The numbers comprise 44,600 who made land visits from vessels, 10,889 cruise-only passengers and 679 who flew to deep field locations. In less than 10 years, visitor numbers had more than doubled.