He died in a blizzard at Gibbney Island in 1983 and his frozen remains were later preserved for the Australian Antarctic Division.

The still bright-eyed husky is a remnant of the past - the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection (Madrid Protocol) later banned all introduced species except humans from Antarctica and the last huskies left the frozen continent in 1993.

There is plenty to see - and hear - in the exhibition Traversing Antarctica: The Australian Experience, developed to mark the centenary of Douglas Mawson's 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition.

Sounds including the shuddering fall of ice into the sea, the howl of gale force winds on Macquarie Island and the powerful push through waves of the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis were recorded by experimental sound artist Philip Samartzis for the exhibition. There are also original documents, touch-screen displays and stunning imagery, including footage and live webcam links to the bases.

Among the exhibits is a wooden sled and skis used by Australasian Antarctic Expedition meteorologist Cecil Madigan, whose grand-daughter, Canberra harpist Alice Giles, last year travelled to the Davis and Mawson stations. where she played her harp on the ice.

Curator Jane Macknight said the exhibition tracked three significant periods - the Australasian Antarctic Expedition from 1911 to 1914; the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) from 1929 to 1931 and the modern era of exploration and research from the 1950s onwards.

Ms Macknight said the original documents were compelling. They include morse code radio message from Mawson to prime minister Andrew Fisher alerting him that the diaries of Xavier Mertz were safe, Mr Mertz being one of the two men who died on the epic Far Eastern Party journey from which Mawson returned alone in a remarkable feat of survival.

''I'm partial to the documents because I spent so long with them,'' Ms Macknight said. ''There's a perception it's boring, stodgy, bureaucratic stuff but it's amazing what personal, emotive stuff comes through.''

Australasian Antarctic Expedition geologist Frank Leslie Stillwell wrote in his diaries of 1912 and 1913 of being in their ''tiny tent'' having to ''raise our voices to a shout, so terrific is the swish of drift and blizzard din''. Donning his frozen leggings was like ''putting one's legs into stove pipes''.

Other more obscure documents include a menu from a celebratory dinner in Melbourne in 1931 for the returning BANZARE team.

Arts Minister Simon Crean said Australia had ''a deep connection and enduring fascination with the Antarctica and we continue to play a significant role in the exploration and care of Antarctica''.

''For me, there is a personal connection to this fascinating chapter in history as one of my relations, Tom Crean, was an early Antarctic explorer in three key British journeys, including the Shackleton and ill-fated Scott expeditions,'' he said.

Traversing Antarctica: the Australian experience opens at the National Archives tomorrow and continues until September 9.