Watch Douglas Mawson: The Survivor (1983) : Full Movie Online Free Douglas Mawson was Australia’s greatest Antarctic explorer. Virtually alone among his contemporaries, he saw the strategic importance of the Antarctic continent to Australia, and its potential marine and mineral wealth. He was not interested in racing to the pole like Amundsen and Scott – he wanted to chart, measure and record. His explorations were to lay the foundations for Australia’s current claim to forty percent of the continent.