In Search of the Last Continent

Great nations had by 1880 lost interest in the South Polar regions. Decades of tentative exploration had found nothing of strategic or economic significance. Melbourne's men of science wondered otherwise, however, and enthusiastically tried to raise an expedition. They failed in this, yet inspired the first publicly recorded landing on the Antarctic continent, by Henrik Bull and his whaling expedition out of Melbourne.

This sensational news led to the first overwintering in Antarctica, by crewman C.E. Borchgrevink's expedition. McConville describes Australia's early Antarctic explorations, the efforts of Melbourne's Antarctic Exploration Committee, and the daring exploratory voyages of Bull and Borchgrevink.