It is a little known fact that Henry Lawson joined Douglas Mawson in Antarctica for one summer, as part of the BANZARE expedition. There was a plan at the time to put out a coffee table book featuring the writings of Lawson and the superlative photography of Frank Hurley.

Lawson proved popular in Antarctica, though thoroughly inept. To quote Mawson, “…he was forever tripping over penguins and losing his mittens. Still, he always came up with a smile on his face.” Eventually he was given a permanent minder.

Alas, exactly what Lawson thought about the frozen south we shall never know. All of his writings were swept overboard by a freak wave while he was writing on deck during unseasonably warm weather on the return journey.

Looking back now, it seems odd that he did not at least try to re-create some of his polar ponderings upon his return to Australia. Lawson being Lawson, other events and experiences presumably crowded in upon him quickly to take his attention. Besides, his life was now nearing its end, and his health was indifferent, to say the least.

So we will forever remain ignorant of Lawson’s reactions to emperor penguins and leopard seals, to towering ice bergs, to the katabatic winds of Commonwealth Bay…and perhaps that potential masterpiece, ‘The Polar Explorer’s Wife”, has been lost forever beneath the waves of the Southern Ocean.

© Stephen Whiteside 26.03.2013