The Southern Frontier

A history of Australia's connection to Antarctica

Antarctica looms large in the Australian psyche - as a place of science, adventure and peril. Our romantic entanglement with this unique environment is deep and enduring.

The Southern Frontier traces Australia's Antarctic obsession from its origins in the nineteenth century to the creation of the Australian Antarctic Territory and a permanent national Antarctic program in the 1930s and 1940s.

It reconstructs Australian ideas, beliefs and anxieties about the Antarctic and shows how Australians came to imagine their nation as having a natural right - perhaps even a destiny - to explore, exploit and control the world to their south. By examining how and why Australia relentlessly pursued the acquisition of its Antarctic Territory, Rohan Howitt recovers a forgotten way of thinking about this region- as one frontier of an Australian Empire stretching from the equator to the South Pole.

At a time when the Australian Government is ramping up its investment in Antarctica and geopolitical tensions are on the rise, The Southern Frontier provides the historical explanation for how Australians came to see the world to their south as a natural extension of the nation's territory.

About the Author

Rohan Howitt is a lecturer in environmental history at Monash University. His research focuses on the interconnected histories of Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. His work has been published in leading scholarly journals such as Australian Historical Studies, History Compass, and The Journal of Global History. The Southern Frontier is his first book.