''Everything is just ripping, we are landing in a place that will make the whole civilised world wonder,'' he wrote later in a letter to his family.

''When I think of the all the fellows slaving in offices in cities when there is all this beautiful God's world to explore and all its wonders to see, I pity them - this is living not merely existing.''

Professor Steve Dovers has the brass theodolite (''basically two spirit level bubbles and a telescope'') his grandfather used to map Australia's new territory in Antarctica, as well as a collection of Mawson expedition memorabilia that includes a walking stick made from nautical rope.

''It was a different era, an heroic age when a scientific expedition attracted adventurous characters who were prepared to take a plunge into the unknown,'' he says.

''These days, it's hard to imagine the excitement this expedition generated, but it attracted a huge public following. Mawson was a strong, formidable and very charming man who needed to gain commercial and political support for the expedition. He had to combine the roles of scientific leader, political advocate as well as expedition organiser and administrator.''

This year marks the centenary of the expedition, with plans to raise funds to restore Mawson's hut in Antarctica and the opening next week of ''Mawson's Men'', an Australian Antarctic Division photographic exhibition at Parliament House.

Professor Dovers, the head of the Australian National University's Fenner School of environment and society, is a third generation scientist. His father, Robert Dovers, was deputy leader of the first Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition in 1948, and led the first wintering party at Australia's new Mawson station in 1954.

The logistics of organising the Mawson expedition ''are unimaginable in our modern era,'' of lightweight waterproof clothing and satellite tracking systems, Professor Dovers says.

''It was an heroic age, and these men were off to explore to a mysterious place that fired the public imagination. In those days, few people had even seen a photograph of Antarctica.''

On their return, Mawson and his crew were welcomed as heroes who had secured a place for Australian on the international science stage, Leafing through a scrapbook of press clippings kept by his grandfather's sister, Professor Dovers points to advertisements for public lectures by expedition members at city town halls, ''with full orchestra'' and operatic arias. ''It was nationalism, but in the nicest possible way. Australians were proud of these adventurers.''