GFE Stumpes: Hobart, AU II (9/12/2025)

Friday, September 12, 2025 (continued)

After breakfast #2, we continued our walk in Battery Point.

Arthur's Circus (circle) (1847) was a development for
working class cottages housing families whose
livelihood depended on the waterfront

Now the cottages sell for over AU$1,000,000

Zantedeschia aethiopica/White Calla Lilies
are huge in Australia

Kent at the Battery Square entrance to Princes Park,
original site of the 1818 Mulgrave Battery//Prince
of Wales Battery for coastal defense

Perhaps Pyrus calleryana/Callery Pear Tree
blossoms with one Camellia bud

Camellia blossom deluge (KSS)

Now we are back in Salamanca Place wth the
warehouses along the left side; the open area on the
right is the location of the famous Salamanca Market,
an outdoor market where over 300 stalls offer locally
made products every Saturday throughout the year

Back at the Customs House Hotel, our room was ready

Customs House Hotel room

Customs House Hotel bathroom

After a quick break, we headed in the opposite direction
to the Mawson's Huts Replica Museum (2013), part of the
Mawson's Huts Foundation (1996) whose purpose is to
conserve, protect and maintain the actual Mawson’s Huts in
Antarctica and educate the broader community about
Australia’s rich and unique Antarctic heritage (KSS)

The Huskies sculpture portrays Basilisk, the leader of the pack, and Alexandra, who were with the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914) that was based at Mawson's Huts, Cape Denison, East Antarctica.

Replica Mawson's Huts are located close to the location of
departure of the Antarctic Expedition that was planned and
financed by the relatively young nation of Australia;
led by Douglas Mawson, a South Australian geologist who
had accompanied Ernest Shackleton in 1907-1909 (KSS)

Replica radio equipment; on the way to
Antarctica, Mawson set up a radio relay
station on Macquarie Island, 1,500 km/
930 miles from Hobart in the Southern
Ocean, and about halfway to Antarctica, but
only a third of the distance to Cape Denison

Location of Mawson's Huts in lower right
(directionally, everything is north of the South Pole?)

A collection of seal teeth

Burberry Jacket was standard issue to members of the expedition

Snow blindness goggles were sewn
into wool masks (KSS)

A photo of the expedition members building the huts;
the replicas were made with the exact same measurements
using Baltic Pine sourced from the same region in
Scandinavia as in 1911, and the same dimensions
of tongue and groove and saw cuts

Eighteen men shared the tight quarters

An original sledge used in the 1911-1914 expedition

The sledges were powered by man, wind, and huskies that
were purchased in Greenland; out of 50 dogs, only about 28
survived the sea journey, and none of the original 50
survived the expedition; unfortunately, many dogs were
eaten when circumstances became desperate

Mawson main hut interior

Main hut bunkbeds

The photographer's dark room

Mawson's room; the expedition members carried this
portable pump organ to Antarctica where it provided
Saturday night entertainment and Sunday morning hymns