The Ice And The Inland Mawson, Flynn, and the Myth of the Frontier

The Ice and the Inland is a fascinating study of how the frontier became etched in the Australian imagination in the early twentieth century in the image of folk heroes such as Douglas Mawson, legendary Antarctic explorer, and John Flynn, founder of the outback Flying Doctor Service. The frontier promised national renewal in the form of racial virility, heroism and an encounter with 'wild' nature. Thus the frontier mythology of the early twentieth century laid the groundwork for the wilderness cult of contemporary Australian life. This book is unique in many ways. Most frontier histories in Australia have focused on race relations; this is the first to focus on the frontier as an ecological phenomenon. It draws on rich primary sources, many of which have never been published, including Antarctic diaries and the letters and journalism of John Flynn. It offers a rich contextualisation of these primary sources in international scholarship on such topics as imperial adventure literature, the rural life movement, population theory, eugenics and the cult of polar exploration. It sets out a comparison of two Australian folk heroes with nearly identical life spans and analyses the reasons for their popularity. And it uncovers the international links of both Antarctic exploration and Flynn's Australian Inland Mission, both of which drew on imperial and trans-Pacific influences, which Brigid Hain traces in detail. Fascinating and wonderfully written, The Ice and the Inland will attract readers interested in the appeal of national icons, the continuing narrative power of stories of exploration and adventure, and the appeal of wilderness as a concept.