Ice and the Inland: Mawson,Flynn,and the Myth of the Frontier

Drawing on such rich primary sources as Antarctic diaries, journalism, and private letters, this fascinating study of how the frontier became etched in the Australia imagination in the early 20th century in the image of such folk heroes as Douglas Mawson and John Flynn, focuses on the frontier as an ecological phenomenon. It places these primary sources in context through international scholarship on such topics as imperial adventure literature, the rural life movement, population theory, eugenics, and the cult of polar exploration. It compares two Australian folk heroes with nearly identical life spans and analyzes the reasons for their popularity, and uncovers international links of both Antarctic exploration and Flynn's Australian Inland Mission, both of which drew on imperial and trans-Pacific influences which are traced in detail in the book. As the frontier promised national renewal in the form of racial virility, virile heroism and an encounter with "wild nature," thus the frontier mythology of the early twentieth century laid the groundwork for the wilderness cult of contemporary Australian life.

Author Biography: Brigid Hains, who holds a PhD in history and a graduate diploma in museum studies, is the lecturer in public history at Monash University in Victoria, Australia.