A cache of food left by the 1911-14 Antarctic expedition led by explorer Sir Douglas Mawson has been found after almost a century in polar cold storage.
The cache of flour and pemmican in calico bags and a tin has been found at Madigan Nunatak, an exposed rocky peak surrounded by ice about 70km east-south-east of Cape Denison.
The nunatak is named after Cecil Madigan, a geologist with Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition who established the food store in case of emergency for sledging parties.
The discovery was made by a small team of explorers led by Greg Mortimer, the first Australian to climb Mount Everest.
''I have been trying to get to Madigan Nunatak for years,'' Mr Mortimer said. ''This year we were in the right place at the right time.
''It was a tiny ridge in the white expanse of the polar plateau about 2400ft above sea level.
''We observed a cairn surmounted by a tin consistent in shape and construction with kerosene tins associated with the [expedition].
''The tin contains at least three calico bags held in place by a rock.''
One of the tins contains a white powder Mr Mortimer believes is flour and another the brown substance pemmican, which was a food mix favoured by the expedition team on sledging runs.
The long bamboo pole which marked the spot for the expedition is still there but now lies on the rocks.
Mr Madigan's granddaughter, Julia Butler, is on Mr Mortimer's expedition on the vice ship the Marina Svetaeva, which is carrying 100 passengers on an Antarctic cruise to Mawson's Huts.
Mr Mortimer flew by helicopter from the Marina Svetaeva to the area around Madigan Nunatak to find the store. Attempts to find Madigan Nunatak in the 1980s failed with ice covering the rocky peak, while only the bamboo pole protruding from the cache was sighted in 1985.
Mr Mortimer left the food store at the site near Cape Denison which was the expedition's base for two years and is now conserved by the Mawson's Huts Foundation.
The Mawson's Huts Foundation team is carrying out an extensive works program which includes locating the first aircraft ever taken to the Antarctic and fitting out a special laboratory to conserve the thousands of artefacts left inside the hut when the expedition left for home in December 1913. AAP