The announcement of the death of Sir Douglas Mawson briefly summarized his career with tributes from university colleagues, Federal, state and interstate politicians, and fellow explorers. His many honours are mentioned and brief details of the funeral arrangements are given.

Mawson's career as a polar explorer began in 1907 when he joined Ernest Shackleton's British Imperial Antarctic Expedition. In the course of that expedition he led a party of men in the first ascent of Mt Erebus, the active volcano on Ross Island, and sledged to the vicinity of the South Magnetic Pole. Enthused by the possibilities of science in the polar regions he led his own expedition south several years later: the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Several years after his return from that he was made Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Adelaide, a position he held for 32 years.

He was actively engaged in the promotion of further exploration of the Antarctic in particular the regions to the immediate south of Australia. He also believed that the wildlife should be exploited or harvested under strict regulations, to finance such explorations. At the same time he was instrumental in the establishment of Macquarie Island as a wildlife reserve.

Following the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expeditions (BANZARE) of 1929-31 and the passing of World War II, Mawson advocated Australia making claim to a portion of Antarctica, and was involved in the establishment of ANARE, the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions, which continue their work today.

Mawson base in the Antarctic is named in his honour, the South Australian Museum and University of Adelaide have a permanent Mawson gallery at the Museum, and there is a bust of Mawson on North Terrace adjacent to the Pulteney Street/North Terrace intersection.

Mawson, Douglas, Sir, Mawson's Antarctic diaries edited by Fred Jacka & Eleanor Jacka Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1988

Mawson, Douglas, Sir, The home of the blizzard: the story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 Kent Town, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1996

Hains, Brigid, The ice and the inland: Mawson, Flynn, and the myth of the frontier Carlton South, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2002

Ayres, Philip J Mawson: a life Carlton South, Vic.: Miegunyah Press: Melbourne University Press, 1999

British, Australian, and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (1929-1931) The winning of Australian Antarctica; Mawson's B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. voyages, 1929-31, based on the Mawson papers. By A. Grenfell Price. Published for the Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research, University of Adelaide [Sydney] Angus and Robertson, 1962