Nella Dan voyage 2 of the 1968/69 season departs Number 7 North Wharf, Melbourne with 24 of the 28 Mawson ‘69ers onboard.

Captain: Bent Hansen, Voyage Leader: Don Styles Deputy Eric Macklin

Christmas dinner at sea on Nella Dan. And very fine it was.

New Year’s eve onboard wasn’t too bad either.

Nella arrives Sandefjord Bay off the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS). Leader and Captain fly in to AIS and Max Corry and others of the 4-man 1968 AIS party visit the ship.

Over the next few days 8 of the Mawson 69ers leave the ship to join the summer program on the AIS (Moonie, Bain, Mitchell, Cowell, Dart, Smith, Bool. and Edwards).

Beaver aircraft unloaded onto AIS

Nella departs Sandefjord Bay.

Nella Dan arrives at Mawson. Party put ashore at the tip of West Arm due to ice in Harbour. Changeover at 20:00. 16 ‘69ers are on station along with 11 (??) remaining 68ers.

Unloading perishables by manhauling around edge of the Harbour ice.

Fire drill – not very successful.

Some difficulties recovering Rumdoodle caravan (by Blundell and Hume - 68) due blue ice at GWAMM.

Saturday duties included blasting for surgery extension. OiCery damaged.

Australia Day celebrations. Pies and peas in brown paper bag. Two-up school run by Blue Wiltshire. Russian overflight.

Cassidy, Withers and Hamm (68) to Horderns Gap by Snow-cat after flight from Amery was cancelled

Hordern survey party return.

Party led by Glenny left to tie down the damaged Russian aircraft at Rumdoodle.

Beaver flight from Landing Bluff via Moore Pyramid. Geoff Bool and Pat Moonie onboard.

Nella Dan voyage 4 arrives at Mawson at 22:30 after sailing from Fremantle on 29 Jan. Captain: Bent Hansen, Voyage Leader: Eric Macklin. US PAGEOS team members Larry Hothem, Bernie Mandelkern, Roy Anderson and Harold Wood arrive at Mawson.

Unloading commences.

Unloading finished. Joint party with Davis69, Macquarie69, Mawson68 and Mawson69 parties, and crew. Nella departed at 22:30 for Davis (15-20 Feb) and then AIS (21-25 Feb).

First Aurora for the year.

First pipe length of the waste heat system placed in-situ. Good on you Gibbo.

Wind strength increased to 50 knots.

First mini blizz.

First snow run for the year.

Nella Dan waiting in Iceberg Alley for wind and blowing snow to abate.

Nella still holding in Iceberg Alley.

Nella Dan arrived 16:00 with rest of the 1969 crew from the AIS.

Unloading of small amount of equipment (including drillers) ex-Amery. Farewell party, and Nella Dan departs about noon with all non-sixtyniners..

Mawson 69 is now complete - and isolated.

Station meeting. OiC Cassidy lays down the rules.

Loading fuel drums on sleds for Autumn traverse.

Camp duties: laying new cable from Radio hut to transmitter hut.

Laundry ban due to low water levels in kitchen tank.

Blizz. – but snow run still necessary.

Woody’s birthday party.

Impromptu St. Patrick’s Day Party.

Down, Plumb and Cooper go to Fisher Nunatak by VW to attempt to seal hut door.

Another blizz with gusts to 84 kt.

Launch of glacio raft Mk I.

Glacio raft Mk I deemed unseaworthy and abandoned due to icing.

Still more delays with Autumn traverse preparations due to D4 dropping a track.

Depot B traverse finally departed (Cassidy, Glenny, Withers, Beman and Neal) 3 D4s and Snotrac.

Sea ice starts to reform in the harbour. 2-IC reports excellent morale despite absence of beloved leader. Two snow runs a day necessary to maintain water.

Ken Smith started rec. room painting.

First sea ice thickness measurement in Harbour. New OiCery and donga officially named Dovers.

Birthday parties for Geoff Bool and Evan Lee culminated in a boat race.

Wind to 84 kt. But no drift.

Wind to 100 kt, but still no drift. All ice in Kista Strait gone. Chris Bain paints the mess.

Wind to 104 kt. Overnight, but abating by the morning

Cassidy and Withers return from Autumn traverse to make a valve lifter to repair D4.

Glacio Mk II raft completed by Mitchell and Allison.

Mk II raft winched laboriously to top of dog lines – all hands drag it the remaining distance to West Bay. Ice yacht tested on the Harbour by Bill Cowell. Traverse party abandons broken Snotrac at Twin Tops depot.

Roy Anderson’s birthday.

Wind gusts to 117 kt but no drift. Aerial damage. Jack Dart hit on head and required stitches.

Winds gust to 123 kt, removing all Harbour ice. Repairs necessary during the blow to the settling tank hut. PAGEOS Astro hut destroyed overnight. Geoff Bool knocked down and bruised. Russian aircraft flipped upside down at Rumdoodle.

Launch of the Mark II glacio raft.

Glacio raft correctly positioned and celebratory champagne issued. Ray Mitchell and others start to build a weasel-engined Bedford. Radio blackout and good Aurora.

First serious dog training run.

BBQ. Wine freezes in bottle.

Blasting ice for water from the plateau due to lack of snow drifts.

Autumn traverse party returns.

Ray Mitchell’s birthday party.

First (almost) drinkable batch of 69 home brew opened.

Anzac Day. Dawn service, last post, field rum issue, etc.

Still continuing with ice runs due to lack of snow drifts.

Webb, Griffiths and Dart go to Rumdoodle to set up botany experiments.

Blizz.

Heavy snowfall overnight, progressing to a blizzard when the wind increased.

More heavy snowfall and another blizzard late at night. Power supplied by the two Rustons while Dorman is repaired.

Weather fine and clear after days of drift.

Dorman back on line. Celebrated with a tasting of Father Martin’s rice wine.

Blizzard yet again, gusting to 96 knots.

Back on to 2 snow runs a day to maintain water level.

Permission received for Fold Island dog trip and preparations started.

Blizzard.

Blizzard continues. Ian Allison’s birthday party.

Group photograph of the total party in the rec. room.

Back to one snow run a day.

Another group photo because the last was unsuccessful.

Dog trip to Fold Island and Taylor Rookery at 11:00. Pat Moonie, John Hogg and Peter Gibson with two 7 dog teams.

Blizzard.

Shift to new OiCery completed.

All sky camera erected at Rumdoodle for auroral photography.

Dog trippers reached Fold Island.

Ken Withers’ birthday party.

Gibbo’s birthday, camped at Gibney Island, multiple fielders with Omik and John H

Fold Island dog trippers return to Mawson, after a 207 mile journey. Rec room serenade "blizzard outside – beer, Bach & Beatles inside"

Midwinter’s Day. Race around Entrance Island won by Bill Cowell on a motorbike (after blatant cheats were disqualified). Official Midwinter Dinner at 13:45 followed by a performance of Cinderella with Jack and Roy in the starring roles.

Midwinter recovery day, for all but the AA’s, John Hogg, John Major, Evan Lee & Peter Griffith

Movie projector plagued with troubles. Use restricted to 3 times per week.

Certain radio operator ribbed unmercifully when loving parent over Joybox urged him to "rub Vicks Vapour Rub on your chest and say your prayers each night before bed"

Birthday party for Mick, Tim, Keith B & Gibbo. Doc, normally an AA, got sloshed, danced on the snooker table and pissed on the floor – because of unsteady aim at a beer tin.

Circus of dog weighing, six blokes wrestling indignant dogs. Pups (6 months) 31kg, dogs 35kg.

Wind gusts to 93 knots, lotsa drift.

Slide show put on by Doc of his numerous female ‘cousins’ to which he appeared to have a very high degree of touching affection. U.S. Independence Day. PAGEOS team add extra star to US flag – Australia. Unwary explorers innocently walking past Wilkins Hut were grabbed by the goblins therein and forced to join a 4^th of July Drillers Party. All survived the vicious cocktails but recovery was slow and painful.

On double snow runs again.

Auster Rookery field trip departs with 2 x 7 dog teams. Major, Cooper, Down and Dart. Initially, sledges refused to move. Cause was practical jokers iced in the runners on the seaice the night before. Pups Trinity, Omik, Shardoo, Blue & Foxzami on the line at 6 months. Howls of canine dismay for two days.

Fine calm day – skiing on drifts around the station.

Apollo 11 moon landing.

Auster dog-trippers return, completing 70 miles round trip.

"Raucous behavior and block throwing at snow runs must be stopped". No cloud, no wind, pastel winter sun, smoke rising vertically from flues & 8cm of overnight snowfall = Mawson most beautiful for one day only in the year. Everyone on walkabout for pikkies.

Birthday party for John Major, Pat Moonie and Bernie Mandelkern.

Close to blizzard conditions by evening.

Blizzard eases. Chocolate eclairs for afternoon tea.

D4 loses a track during camp refuelling.

Blizzard. Dark room heater flue blocked – soot everywhere. Gusts exceed 100kts 30 times.

Taylor Rookery dog trip departs. Tim Cassidy, Pat Moonie and Chris Bain with 2 x 7 dog teams.

Blizzard.

Field party reaches Taylor.

Blizzard.

Blizzard stops. Back on double snow runs yet again.

No contact with field party for several days. SAR preparations made.

Still no field party contact. 1^st SAR of Cowell, Mitchell and Dart left station at 14:15 after initial delays due to incorrect 2-stronke fuel mix. At 18:30 1^st SAR party report that all snow-mobiles broke down 3 miles from Gibney Island. They have hauled survival gear to a campsite on the island.

2^nd SAR of Withers, Gibson and Wood prepare tracked Fergy tractor and a Norwegian sled to go and get the snow mobiles. 3^rd SAR of Glenny and Harold Wood in a Snotrac available to rescue anyone.

1^st SAR party still stranded on Gibney. Problems with Snotrac starter motor and Fergy battery delay departure of Recovery Party till after lunch.

Dog Trippers reach Gibney – comms problems due to a broken radio. Doggies and 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd SARs in convoy to Mawson, governed by max Fergy speed of 2mph. Entering Horseshoe Harbour they were met by the 4^th SAR of John Major pushing a wheelbarrow containing a ration pack and Tilley lamp.

Dog trippers covered 122 miles.

VW Australia conducted a guessing comp of mileage on our VW (Antarctica 3). No one near the mark of 2,097 miles.

Yet another blizz. Barometer at 948 hPa.

Spring is coming. Some daylight now between 08:00 and 19:30.

Pete Neal completes fit-out of the PID van as a fire point with the Coventry-Climax pump.

Beautiful weather for first day of Spring.

Darryl Edwards’ birthday party.

Snow-mobiles went to Gibney Island to recover 1^st SAR field gear. Only got the tent, they did not want to overnight for the rest..

Blizzard.

Field party left for Auster Rookery. Bill Cowell, Keith Beman, Geoff Bool, Larry Hothem and Darryl Edwards with one 7-dog and one 9-dog team.

Field party reaches Auster.

Commence loading sleds for Spring Traverse to Moore Pyramid.

Auster field party returns, completing 70 miles.

Birthday party for Rowan Webb and Ken Smith. Appropriate decorations by Jack Dart.

Ice yachting on the harbour.

Two dog teams of Omik, Bernie and Doc to Gibney to retrieve 1^st SAR field gear and sledges.

Gibney Island party returns, recovered all. 30 miles traveled.

Casey report very bad blizz which took out 3 log-periodic antennae. Mawson handling extra radio traffic direct to Sydney.

First skua of the season.

Two tractors left to depot sleds at Horderns Gap. Mick, Ray Mitchell, Ken Smith & Gibbo. Early start-up of tractors in the workshop triggered a false fire alarm.

Near blizzard.

Horderns Gap D4s returned.

Another depot trip to Horderns. Cassidy, Allison, Smith and Mitchell.

Minor fire in vehicle workshop.

Horderns party returned.

First test of the waste heat system in the VWS and geo. Seaice at max thickness/strength. Dark at 23.00, light at 04.00. Seal hunting for dog food begins.

Rec. room painting.

Spring Traverse to Moore Pyramid departs with 3 D4s at 7 am. Cassidy, Mitchell, Withers, Anderson, Wood and Smith. 15 days behind schedule.

Snotrac party (Glenny and 3 others) go as far as Horderns to help assemble the train, and suffer mild CO poisoning on return.

Repainting the rec. room continues.

Rec. room refurbishing continues with carpet laying in the library and music areas. Wrong piece of carpet used in the library and John Hogg demonstrates his surgical skill in sewing pieces together to fit the music room. Return of the Adelie penguins.

First Adelie waddled into Horseshoe Harbour, knocked off by Oce (off the line to service Jenny) who gave the plump prize to his lover. She devoured all except the beak & feet.

Traverse reaches Moore Pyramid after a good weather run.

Radio blackout 2 days before and 2 days after the Melbourne Cup, but lifted briefly for the running of the Cup. Divine intervention! Tim won the sweep of 21 cans, local currency, on Rain Lover..

Attempt to shift old OiCery to make way for surgery extension. Iced in.

Don Plumb’s birthday party. Nella Dan at Heard Island to evacuate Ben Roth & the PAGEOS group, to their intense relief.

Bedford truck doing sterling service dumping station gash & 44 gallon drums north of Kista Strait. Peter Neal very adept at Bedford ground loops.

Removing ice from under the old OiCery with the fire hose.

Day-trip to Giganteus Island by Moonie, Martin and Hogg with two 7-dog teams (20 miles).

Day-trip to Giganteus (Cooper, Beman, Edwards) turns back due to threatening weather.

Blizzard. Wet drift.

Day-trip to Giganteus Island by Cooper, Griffiths, Major and Mandelkern (20 miles). A pile of 1939 Readers Digests appeared. What next?

Day trip to Giganteus Island by Hothem, Webb, Dart and Allison (20 miles). Ice measurements show that sea ice is deteriorating.

Power cable failure overnight. Peter Neal runs temporary cables.

Waste heat system becomes operative.

Pete Neal drops through a tide crack during a sealing trip.

Old OiCery finally shifted.

Camp meeting to discuss camp duties.

New drums in Law Hut.

Birthday party for Pete Neal, Peter Griffiths, Bill Cowell and Horry Down. Game of Duck Run Derby in the Rec Room. The team of Don, Gino, Omik & Ray were victorious over Mick, Enus, Waddles & Dart. Doc tried to escape, brought down by a flying tackle, suffered a gashed leg. To the surgery where he inserted five stitches, then Bill Cowell inserted 2 and Glenny inserted 2 more. None were sober, of course.

Blizzard with winds to 95 knots and very damp drift, sticking to building roofs.

Continuing blizzard with many buildings leaking badly. Radio comms shut down because of leaks at VLV. Plumber solves problem of leaking roof in the rec. room by drilling a hole in the floor.

Beautiful sunny day. Inspection showed two vans at GWAMM had been blown north westward into a crevassed region. RMIT van destroyed, but Freighter van was recovered.

Start work on the surgery extensions.

Moore Pyramid traverse party returns. All equipment performed well except the Petter generator and the new design Allan Brown sledges, which fell apart.

Surgery extension completed to lock-up in 3 hours after good preparatory work by Gibbo..

Party to celebrate traverse return.

Melt lake in operation. No more snow runs.

Another Russian overflight.

Nella Dan sailed from Melbourne for Mawson. Captain: Bent Hansen, Voyage Leader: Don Styles, Deputy: Eric Macklin.

Field party left for Mt. Twintop. John Hogg, Bernie Mandelkern, Jack Dart and Ian Allison with 1 x 7-dog and 1 x 9-dog team. Initial leg up to GWAMM with a 1 x 16-dog team – and a 1 x 16-dog fight. Objective was to remark the tractor route through the Framnes Mountains and to demolish the grog supply at Rumdoodle Hut.

A penguin wandered into the dog lines and got chomped. Outcome was that the OIC lectured the dogman on the Antarctic Treaty, dogman ditto to the dogs.

Christmas Day. Field party has Christmas at Rumdoodle.

Christmas poem from South Africans at SANAE:

It was Christmas in the harem, and the eunuchs stood in pairs

watching all the lovely girls, comb their pubic hairs.

And the voice of Father Christmas, came booming through the halls

"what would you like for Christmas?"

and the eunuchs shouted "BALLS"

Wind gusts to 101 knots, wet drift snow. Lotsa water in huts. Seaice blew out 1.5 miles from the coast.

Dog-trippers return, after completing 80 miles.

New Year’s party, commences 14:00 and continues until 02:30.

Expeditioners start to prepare RTA.

Final station clean-up.

Stern wizzer from USC&GS telling D-D-D-Don Styles on Nella Nan to RTA PAGEOS first ship.

Last of the beer consumed.

Helicopters from Nella Dan arrived at 14.00. Mail chopper had to orbit while D-D-D-Don chopper landed and OIC greeting photos could be taken. Nella Dan moored at midnight after spending 8 hours cutting out harbour ice..

Ship unloading commences. Routine is brekkie at 06.30, lunch 13.30 & dinner 20.00. The forecaster predicted strong winds tomorrow, but only after Waddles casually informed him that it would be so (it happened).

Pilatus Porter aircraft brought ashore by barge.

Eric Macklin decided to send six new drum sledges ashore over the weak seaice. They sank & were hauled out by Nella Dan’s boom. Much laughter ashore.

Wings fitted to Pilatus Porter.

New D5 tractors brought ashore by barge.

Official changeover and 1970 party takeover the station. OiC is now Bruce ("I know who I am") Smith. Returning 69ers move on to Nella.

First flight of Porter from West Bay. Changeover party.

First flight to Moore Pyramid for NPCM program.

Nella Dan departs about 1600 with 17 of the 28 Mawson 69ers onboard. Sixteen returning home, while John Hogg gets off at Casey (26 Jan) to relieve the doc there. Voyage arrives in Fremantle 3 Feb.

John Hogg eventually returns to Australia on Thala Dan, leaving Casey 17 Feb and arriving in Hobart on 4 Mar.

Five 69ers stay at Mawson for the summer (Mitchell, Glenny, Neal, Griffiths and Allison) while six head further south for the NPCM summer program (Martin, Moonie, Dart, Down, Cowell and Major).

Cowell and Dart to Moore Pyramid by Porter.

Ian Allison and Mick Glenny in trouble with the new OiC for blasting ice without approval.

Finally, weather good enough at Moore Pyramid to fly more PCMers in.

All PCM party at Moore Pyramid.

Successful launch of glacio raft Mk3 ("the Good Ship Lollipop"). Pete Neal tows it into place with the dinghy.

1970 Autumn traverse departed with Ray Mitchell as part of the team.

Pat Moonie and John Major returned to Mawson from PCM by helicopter.

Damaged Porter returned to Mawson. Keith Martin returned by helicopter.

Pat Moonie takes on the temporary duties of Senior Radio Operator for the 1970 team following disagreement about principles between 1970 OiC and "Narra" Johnson.

"Mumbles" Walker returned from the PCM in a medivac and operated on for appendicitis. Ray Mitchell returned by helicopter from the traverse.

Evacuation of Moore Pyramid completed. Jack Dart and Bill Cowell back in town.

Nella Dan voyage 3 of 1969/70 arrives at Mawson about 1600 after sailing from Fremantle on 6 February, and travelling via Davis (16-23 Feb). Captain: Bent Hansen, Voyage Leader: Eric Macklin, Deputy: Frank Smith.

Nella departs about with remnant 69ers onboard. Before departure Bruce Smith realises his embroidered hat and jacket have been souvenired. Eric Macklin lays down the law, demanding return of these items. A large collection of hats is recovered including (eventually) the correct one. Jacket is never found.

Farewell Mawson.

Nella arrives Melbourne. All 69ers back home.