Dr Marie Kawaja is a historian specialising in Australian diplomatic history, previously affiliated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian National University. Her research focuses on the early political and diplomatic history of the Australian Antarctic. She has published in various journals, participated in seminars and conferences, and served as the consulting historian for the National Archives of Australia's 2012 traveling exhibition‘Traversing Antarctica: the Australian Experience’. Kawaja has completed a history of theAustralian Antarctic Territory, which is to be published.

This talk will reveal how Australia acquired the Australian Antarctic Territory, which makes up 42% of Antarctica, and its role in shaping the 1959 Antarctic Treaty to prevent militarisation of the region. Since the movement to Federation, the colonies united in an ambitious scheme to control their southern approach. After numerous attempts to convince the British imperial authorities to participate in the venture, Australia finally won British Government assistance. Navigating in unchartered waters over two summers (1929-1931) the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition, commanded by Douglas Mawson, with a Commission from the King, claimed an area stretching from below the African continent to the south of Australia. The new territory would be incorporated into the Empire under Australian administration. By 1936 Australia formalised its control over the region and called it the Australian Antarctic Territory.

At the height of the Cold War, the governance of the Antarctic occupied the United States. President Eisenhower invited the eleven nations that had participated in the Antarctic Programme of the International Geophysical Year (1957-198) to negotiate a new Antarctic regime. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union recognise the Australian Antarctic Territory and both chose to establish scientific stations there. Australia proposed a binding agreement for the non-militarisation of Antarctica to avoid it becoming another theatre of the Cold War. Despite initial refusal by the United States to have its hands tied in the southern region, it eventually agreed that the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, would enforce non-militarisation. From Federation until the signing of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, Antarctic events unfolded and evolved in unforeseen ways. Throughout these eventful times, Australia sought to balance loyalty to its powerful allies with its own national goals.

There will be a Q&A session following the presentation, then light refreshments.
MCH members $15; Concession (Gov’t support and full-time students) $15; Non-members $20