The Nature of Ice Read online

  Jim Buckle’s boat is hauled high up on the beach, tethered to the hub of an old tractor wheel. Come winter the Buckles, and others of their ilk, leave the bay to escape the cold. Revived by Queensland sun, the pair will stay north until Roma can be convinced that spring has thawed the last skerrick of frost from this small southerly isle.

  When Chad pulls on an oar to veer the boat down the bay he feels the morning sun touch his face. Through the trees he can see the oiled wood of his deck, now completed. He’s been home eight months. He passes the old dead gum where this time each year a pair of white-bellied sea eagles adds new scaffolding to their nest of sticks. Time feels as steady and smooth as the stroke of an oar.

  The water at the stern flashes between aquamarine and cobalt blue when a mollymawk crisscrosses the sun. The big bird trails his wake as Chad makes his way past the quarry; it quickly learns the pattern of a man’s day, discovering the treasures a net can hold.

  Chad rests his feet against the wooden foothold repositioned to suit his height. He’s as happy as Larry with the new lease of life he’s given his grandfather’s old dinghy. He spent the last month—time he should have put into a shamefully long-overdue delivery—restoring the wood: sanding back timber and planking the floor with new King Billy pine. He honed smaller handles from the original Huon pine oars he’d watched his grandfather turn before Chad was old enough to use the lathe on his own. If Pop were here now he’d run the flat of his hand along the planks to judge the kind of varnishing job the kid has given her. He’d not find too much to tut-tut about; the waterproof skin of the dinghy gleams.

  Chad rolls up his sleeves and reaches down beside the dinghy to retrieve the wooden buoy. The mollymawk skims the water, tucks its wings in close, bobbing a respectful distance away. Man and bird peer down through the water at the glint of silver held fast in the mesh. Chad frees the remnants of a parrotfish and throws it well away. The mollymawk, in a flutter of wings and gangling legs, squawks across the surface and stakes its claim before any marauder dares approach. Chad pulls in fistfuls of netting, and with it a trevally and two good-sized trumpeter, the last struggling to shake free of his hold in a shower of glassy scales.

  HE RACES AGAINST HIS BEST time home, working his arms and upper body, stretching and flexing his back. When he rounds the point to the bay he lets the dinghy drift, regaining his breath, absorbing the sun, water burbling beneath the keel. He can see the artist on the beach in conversation with a second woman.

  Chad rows leisurely across the deeper water towards the pontoon. At the shoreline the figure of the new arrival treads across the sand, keeping step with the pace of his oars. Her movement seems distinctive and for a moment his breath stops, but when she takes off her hat he can see her hair is darker, that she wears it cropped, that this woman in jeans is slighter than the one who lives in his thoughts.

  He hooks the dinghy’s painter around a cleat and sits on the edge of the pontoon, his feet dangling inside the boat. He holds the fish bucket in his lap, admiring his bounty that continues to flip and flop. He turns to see that the woman has reached the rocks and stops to stare in his direction. She tilts her head quizzically, her face divided by shadow. With a start he realises the puzzle she ponders is him. Chad is in peril of being winded; he stands, clutching the handle of his bucket, stepping forward, lingering, hesitating, unsure still if his mind is playing tricks. She scrambles over the rocks, jumps barefooted from one stone to the next as lightly as a bird. He just has time to think, Of course it’s Freya, before he becomes dizzy and has to firmly tell himself to concentrate lest he careers off the edge of the pontoon.

  She steps onto the planks and raises her hand. He feels her steps vibrating through the wood, the distance between them dwindling. She strides towards him, fearless, and though he tries to move he cannot, apprehension ringing in his ears like shattering glass.

  Freya stands before him, smiling, crying, flyaway strands of her hair floating in the sun. He pushes the bucket to the crook of his arm and takes her outstretched hands—he grips them hard, incapable of less. He feels fifteen years old, his limbs ungainly. He shakes his head, tongue-tied, looks downwards for words, certain his voice will quaver when he speaks and finally blurting, You waited a long time.

  His utterance echoes as a couplet; she speaks the same words in return.

  Chad meets her iceberg-blue eyes and it’s Freya who laughs first. He stands fixed to the pontoon, fish slapping the bucket, his hands covered in scales, but he’s not letting go.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  THE NATURE OF ICE WAS written as part of a PhD in Writing at Edith Cowan University, with the support of a Postgraduate Research Scholarship and a stellar supervisor. For wisdom, guidance and goodwill, my heartfelt gratitude goes to Richard Rossiter and to fellow writers Amanda Curtin and Annabel S mith.

  While The Nature of Ice is a work of fiction, it rests on a foundation of research reinforced by the expertise and experiences of colleagues and friends who shared information, material, anecdotes and views.

  Nancy Robinson Flannery, along with Ian Flannery, contributed in myriad ways to my understanding of Paquita Delprat and Douglas Mawson. Nancy also permitted me to use and research her ideas on smoking as a factor in Xavier Mertz’s demise.

  I am indebted to Gabrielle Eisner of Switzerland who translated Xavier Mertz’s German diary transcript in its entirety and to The Friends of Mawson for financial assistance.

  Particular thanks go to Maya Allen Gallegos, the ANARE club (especially John Gillies, Bruce McDonald and Selwyn Peacock), Philip Ayres, Sasha Boston, Henk Brolsma, Ingolv Bruaset, Dave Burkitt, John Bryan, Mike Craven, Amy Cort, Chris Forbes-Ewan, EC U library staff and the Document Delivery Service, Malcom Foster, Pete Gill, Stephen Haddelsey, Deborah Kerr, Syd Kirkby, Estelle Lazer, Elle Leane, Lynne Leonhardt, Ben Manser, Gary Mason, Dave McCormack, the late Jessica McEwin, Alasdair McGregor, Doug McVeigh, the late Mollie Mundy, Thomas Pickard, Estelle de San Miguel, Bob Silberberg, Max and Muriel Sluce, Mike Staples, Clive Strauss, Tashi Tenzing, Amanda Till and Rosy Whelan.

  The South Australian Museum/University of Adelaide allowed me to publish Hurley’s and Mertz’s photographs, and with Gareth Mawson Thomas, kindly consented to me reprinting archival material from the Mawson and Delprat Papers. The generosity and enthusiasm of Mark Pharaoh, curator of Mawson’s Papers, added to the enjoyment of the research process. I am grateful to the Mitchell Library for assistance with archival material, and permission to publish Hurley’s and Mertz’s images from their collection. Bill Hunter granted permission to reprint extracts from his father’s diaries held at the National Library of Australia; Allan Mornement allowed me to use several excerpts from Belgrave Ninnis’s diaries housed at the Scott Polar Research Institute. While these and other quotes have since metamorphosed into scenes and dialogue, they have been an invaluable part of ‘getting it right’ within the creative process.

  Much of my polar experience I owe to Greg and Margaret Mortimer of Aurora Expeditions, with whom I first travelled in 1996. They have since included me as part of their expedition team on ship-based tours to the Antarctic and Arctic. In the summer of 2003–04 I worked for the Australian Antarctic Division as a field assistant at Davis Station, and while this was a scientific role researching south polar skuas, the experience of living at a station and working in the field provided the scaffolding for the novel.

  I am indebted to Allen & Unwin for accepting the novel and for their efforts in its development. Thanks to Annette Barlow, Peter Eichhorn and Catherine Milne for guidance and encouragement, and editors Siobhán Cantrill, Clara Finlay and Ali Lavau, whose expertise and patience have steered the manuscript through its final evolvement. Sandy Cull produced the striking cover and interior designs, while Bookhouse typeset the pages.

  Finally, I thank my lucky stars for my loving partner Gary Miller, who has enabled me to participate in Antarctic science, and whose knowledge of and passion for Antarctica has helped foster my own understanding.
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  ARCHIVAL

  SOURCES

  Depositories: LaT: La Trobe Library of the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne; MAC : Mawson Antarctic Collection, University of Adelaide, Adelaide; ML: Mitchell Library of the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; NLA: National Library of Australia, Canberra; SA M: South Australian Museum; SLSA : State Library of South Australia, Adelaide; SPRI: Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge

  Correspondence: AAE Staff Agreements, 1911. MSS 171/19. ML; Close, J. Application to Douglas Mawson, 1911. MSS 171/14. ML; Collier, M. Application to Douglas Mawson, 1911. Scrap book 257.1.7 (8). MAC ; Davis, J.K. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1913. 43AAE . MAC ; Davis, J.K. Correspondence with Roald Amundsen, 1912; Percy Gray, 1911–1913; John Hunter, 1913. MSS 171/23X. ML; Delprat, P. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1912–1913. 52DM. MAC ; Gaumont Co. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, November 20, 1911–December 31, 1913. MSS 171/21X. ML; Hurley, F. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1911. MSS 171/14. ML; Hurley, M.A. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1911. MSS 171/14. ML; Madigan, C. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1914. 175AAE . MAC ; Mawson, D. Correspondence with AAE suppliers and sponsors, 1911: Farrahs, Dr, Jaegar’s Sanitary Woollen System Co. Ltd., Sunlight Soap, London Aluminium Company Ltd., Marmite Food Extract Co. Ltd.; Correspondence with Professor Orme Masson, 1911; Correspondence with Xavier Mertz, 1911. MSS 171/4. ML; Correspondence with Frau Mertz, 1914. Lennard Bickel Papers. MAC ; Correspondence with Inspector General Ninnis, 1914. 175AAE . MAC ; Correspondence with John King Davis, 1913; Correspondence with T. W. Edgeworth David, 1914. 43AAE . MAC ; Correspondence with Kathleen Scott, 1916. PRG 523, Series 4–6. SLSA ; Correspondence with Paquita Delprat, 1911–1914; Belgrave Ninnis, 1913; Ada Ninnis, 1914; Alec Tweedie, 1911; Kathleen Scott, c. 1914, 1920. 52DM. MAC ; Correspondence with Paquita Mawson (nee Delprat), 1911–1920. PRG 523, Series 3. SLSA ; Correspondence with Walter Hannam, 1911; Gaumont Co., 1911; Frank Hurley, 1911; Charles Laseron, 1911; Herbert Dyce Murphy, 1911. MSS 171/14–15. ML; Telegram to Mertz family, 1913; Telegram to Inspector General Ninnis, 1913. 29AAE . MAC ; Telegram to Paquita Delprat, 1913. 28AAE . MAC ; McLean, A. Field note to Douglas Mawson, 29 January 1913. 48AAE . MAC ; Mertz, E. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1914. MSS 171/18. ML; Mertz, X. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1911. 13AAE 2. MAC ; Scott, K. Correspondence with Douglas Mawson, 1926. PRG 523, Series 4–6. SLSA ; Southcott, R. Correspondence with Fred Jacka, 1983. 70AAE . MAC ; Toutcher, N. Correspondence with John King Davis, 1912. MSS 17124. ML.

  Diaries: Davis, J.K. AAE diaries, December 3, 1911–February 26, 1914. MS 8311. LaT; Gray, P. ‘Letters Home’, December 2, 1911–February 26, 1914. Typed transcript with a preface by Francis H. Bickerton. MSS 2893. ML; Hannam, W. AAE diaries, November 21, 1911–March 14, 1913. MSS 384. ML; Harrisson, C.T. AAE diaries, December 2, 1911–April 12, 1913. MSS 386. ML; Hunter, J.G. AAE diaries, November 21, 1911– March 1, 1913. MS 2806. NLA; Hurley, J.F. AAE sledging diary, November 10, 1912–January 10, 1913, with a typed, edited transcript. MSS 389/1–2. ML; Kennedy, A.L. Diary. December 2, 1911–July 26, 1912. 80AAE . MAC ; Laseron, C. AAE diary and related papers, November 21, 1911–February 24, 1913; Sledging diary, November 8, 1912–January 6, 1913; MSS 385. ML; Mawson, D. AAE diaries, 1912–1914; AAE sledging notebook November 10–13, 1912; AAE notebook ‘Glaciology’ (n.d.). 68DM. MAC ; McLean, A.L. AAE diaries, December 2, 1911–February 26, 1914. Typed transcript. MSS 382, Vol. 2 (2). ML; Mertz, X. AAE diary, July 28, 1911–January 1, 1913. 70AAE . Typed German transcript. MD752/1. MAC ; AAE diary, July 28, 1911–January 1, 1913. English translation, 2005, from typed German transcript MD752/1. (G. Eisner, Trans.). Author’s collection (copy held at MAC ); Moyes, M.H. AAE diary, December 2, 1911–February 23, 1913. MSS 388/1. ML; Ninnis, B.E.S. Diaries, May 11, 1908–November 8, 1912. SPRI; Webb, E.N. AAE sledging diary, November 19, 1912–January 11, 1913. MSS 2895. ML.

  Documents: AAE Photographic Equipment List. (n.d.). 13AAE 2. MAC ; Auroral sightings at Adelie Land, 1913. 43AAE . MAC ; Bickel, L. Research Report on Xavier Guillame Mertz. (n.d.). Lennard Bickel Papers. MAC ; Hunter, J.G. Biological Report, c. 1913. 63AAE . MAC ; Mawson, D. Lecture notes and captions accompanying public lantern slide presentation, 1914. PRG 523, Series 11. SLSA ; Meteorological Log: Far Eastern Sledging Journey in Adelie Land and King George V Land, summer 1912–1913. 63AAE . MAC ; Newspaper clippings, 1914. Scrap Books 257.1.2 (3). MAC ; Note regarding unsuccessful recall of ship on February 8, 1913. 43AAE . MAC ; Southcott, R. Three folders relating to vitamin A poisoning. Lennard Bickel Papers. MAC ; Webb, E.N. (1965). Magnetic Polar Journey 1912. Typed transcript including cover letter. MSS 6812. ML; Winter quarters departure note, 1913. 43AAE . MAC ; Winter quarters hut notices, 1912: Routine Duties; Nightwatchman Duties; Messman Duties; Kitchen Department; Clothing; Desiderata in Aurora Observations. 43AAE . MAC ; Winter quarters library books, c. 1912. 43AAE . MAC ; Wireless Log, Adelie Land Station, 1913. 43AAE . MAC ; Wireless messages transmitted from Macquarie Island, February 14, 1912–November 22, 1913. MSS 17140. ML.

  Photographs: Hurley, F. Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911–1914. ML: pp: 52, 154, 203, 344; SA M: pp: 20, 30, 60, 66, 88, 141, 294, 323, 361. Mertz, X. Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911–1914. ML: p. 2; SA M: p. 112.

  Recordings: Antarctic Pioneers: The Story of Australia’s First Conquests of Antarctica, narrated by Frank Hurley [Video]. (1962); Home of the Blizzard [Video copy of Cinematograph]. (1913). ML: VB 2743; Nutrition Lessons From Antarctic Tracking. Transcript from Ockham’s Razor. Radio National; Portrait of a Scientist: Sir Douglas Mawson. c. 1962. [Audio recording]. ABC Radio; “Ready Boys Mush” [Video]. (1987). Mawson Station, Antarctica.