The Proclamation Island moment: making Antarctica Australian
Collis, Christy (2004) The Proclamation Island moment: making
Antarctica Australian. Law Text Culture, 8(1), pp. 39-56. It is
January 1930 and the restless Southern Ocean is heaving itself
up against the frozen coast of Eastern Antarctica as the
exploring ship Discovery shoves its way through the pack. One of
the key moments of the British, Australian, and New Zealand
Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE)—is about to occur: the
expedition is about to succeed in its primary mission. Douglas
Mawson, the expedition's Australian leader, ascends to the
island's bleak summit. There, he and his crew assemble a mound
of stones and insert into it the flagpole they've carried with
them across the ocean. Mawson reads an official proclamation of
territorial annexation, the photographer Hurley shoots the
moment on film, and one of the men hauls the Union Jack up the
pole. In the freezing wind, the men take off their hats and sing
"God Save the King." They depo