Australian
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This black-and-white clip shows the landing at Macquarie Island during the 1929 British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) to Antarctica led by Australian geologist Sir Douglas Mawson. The scientific team leave their ship, the Discovery, in the bay and travel by launch to the breakers where they transfer to a small rowing boat to take them to the shore. On the beach the men unload equipment and mingle with elephant seals and royal penguins while filmmaker Frank Hurley narrates with a light-hearted commentary.

Educational value points

• This expedition was the forerunner for scientific work that continues today on Macquarie Island. The expedition collected marine biological samples and undertook geological and oceanographic research. Material collected in this expedition was analysed over the next 50 years and reported in 13 volumes of the BANZARE scientific reports. Invaluable data collected about the environment at Cape Denison is still in use, especially for comparative purposes.

• Hurley features the prolific bird and sea life of Macquarie Island in this clip. The island is a breeding ground for southern elephant seals (also called sea elephants), which spend most of their time at sea, returning to the same beaches each year to breed. A single dominant male controls a harem of up to 50 females. The royal penguins shown here breed only on Macquarie Island, forming one of the greatest congregations of any seabird in the world when breeding.

• Frank Hurley’s light-hearted subject matter and narration reflects attitudes at that time about human interaction with wildlife. He shows scientists interacting so closely with the seals that a bull elephant seal feels threatened and charges, providing entertainment. Hurley makes comical references to the penguins, personifying them as ‘the Nuggets Lifesaving Club’ and refers to Nuggets beach as the ‘Deauville’ of Antarctica (Deauville is a popular French seaside resort).

• The clip shows members of the BANZARE landing on Macquarie Island in 1931. One of the main aims of the expedition was to lay claim to territory on behalf of the British Empire. The expedition mapped a large area of the Antarctic coast and Mawson claimed British possession of 42 per cent of Antarctica, which was transferred to Australia in 1935.

• This expedition led by Douglas Mawson (1882-1958) took place 20 years after the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) that he led from 1911 to 1914, which measured and recorded scientific and meteorological data on Macquarie Island. After the expedition in 1929 Mawson was instrumental in getting Macquarie Island declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1933. The territory was transferred to Australia in 1947.

• Frank Hurley (1885-1962) was a renowned Australian adventurer and filmmaker who gained his reputation as a groundbreaking photographer and filmmaker due to his participation in Antarctic expeditions. Prior to Siege of the South, he had already made two films on Antarctic expeditions, Home of the Blizzard of the 1911-14 expedition and In the Grip of Polar Ice about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-17 expedition.

The expedition team head towards the island in a small boat. On the beach, the men unload their equipment and encounter seals and penguins with the following voice-over.

Frank Hurley As we chugg shorewards across the bay, our launch scares flocks of Dominican gulls which are gorging off a shoal of small fish. We moor the launch outside the breakers, transfer ourselves to the pram and row ashore to the ground thrillingly on the beach with no worse experience than getting our sea-boots filled. We carry our equipment to safety and then each man is free to go about his specialised work and of course we need no second bidding.

And now we are on Macquarie Island, the world’s wonderland of sub-Antarctic bird and sea life. Accompanied by my comrades – there they are carrying my camera gear through this dreamy scene of snoring sea elephants – let us go for a ramble along the seashore. Now tread cautiously among these sleeping beauties. This way, now watch your step.

Look out! Look out! Look out! Look out! Here comes a big bull sea elephant. My word, he’s very angry at us for having invaded his harem. It’s quite all right. Now don’t be afraid. He weighs three tonnes but he’s quite harmless. The frightening look and roar of these amphibians are their most effective modes of defence. Of course you know it’s looking for trouble to venture as close as Campbell is doing. Look out Campbell, he’ll be after you!

Now come a little further with me this way, along this sea elephant littered shore and I will show you how the penguins spend their summer vacation. Ah, here we are at last. This is the Nuggets Beach, the Deauville of Antartica. The bathing season is at its height and the elite are gathered in festive thousands to enjoy the delights of the surf and to gossip over the social events of the penguin community.

Oh look! Do you notice in the foreground there the members of the Nuggets lifesaving club marching past their way to the breakers. Ah, here they come. Strutting out proudly as if they own the very sea. It is icy cold but there is no hesitation in plunging in. Here come the Smiths and Browns too to join in the duck and dabble. Oh, and these are some of the highbrows. Look, they’re watching the Browns and Smiths and they’re trying to make up their minds whether to lose their dignity and dive.