Established in 1954, Mawson is the longest continuously operating station south of the Antarctic Circle. It is the most westerly of Australia’s 3 continental stations. It is situated about 5,200 km south-west of Perth.

Location: 67° 36′ 10″ S, 62° 52′ 23″ E (−67.6027°, 62.8730°)

Mawson local time: (UTC+5)

The station is named after Australia’s most significant Antarctic explorer, Sir Douglas Mawson.

The Mawson region is one of the richest areas for seabirds in the Australian Antarctic Territory.

This area supports breeding colonies of emperor and Adélie penguins, snow petrels, Antarctic petrels, Wilson’s storm petrels, cape petrels, southern giant petrels, Antarctic fulmars and skuas.

Research activities at Mawson include cosmic ray, space and atmospheric physics, studies in space weather, geophysics, glaciology, ecology of seabirds and marine mammals, meteorology and polar medicine. Many of the instruments supporting physical research operate remotely and automatically send data back to scientists in Australia.

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