Imagine life in a land of ice and blizzards... 
What motivates people to venture to a place of such extremes as Antarctica? One word: Discovery.

Traversing Antarctica: the Australian experience shows how Australia’s connection with the frozen continent has developed for over 100 years since the 1911–14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Douglas Mawson. Documentary materials from the National Archives, a rare collection of original equipment, diaries from early expeditions and inspiring imagery reveal this fascinating history. The exhibition is a joint project by the National Archives of Australia, the Australian Antarctic Division and the Western Australian Museum.

On exhibition at the Museum of the Riverina Historic Council Chambers site from Saturday April 12, 2014 until Sunday 22 June, 2014

Douglas Mawson (fifth from right) with the rescue party and members of Macquarie Island Base returning to Australia, 1914.  Photographer unknown.  NAA: M583, 17  National Archives collection	Moulting Adélie penguins affected by blizzard, Cape Denison, 1912. Photographer: Frank Hurley. NAA: M584, 6 National Archives collection.

Check out a wide selection of public programs in association with this exhibition:

TRAVERSING ANTARCTICA
Astronomy Launch!

What better way to start the school holidays than with the launch of a family friendly exhibition at the Museum’s Historic Council Chambers site. Traversing Antarctic: The Australian Experience, is touring to us from the National Archives of Australia, in collaboration with the Australian Antarctic Division and The Western Australian Museum. Instead of hosting an official ceremony to launch the exhibition, we are welcoming Michael Maher from the Wagga Wagga Observatory, and his mobile telescope to the forecourt of the Wagga Wagga City Council Chambers building and staying open late so you and your family can explore the exhibition inside and the stars outside, in a celebration of discovery.

IN THE EVENT OF POOR WEATHER, THIS EVENT WILL BE POSTPONED.

Library Screen Scene

Children and parents are invited to a welcoming and safe environment to watch some great movies on the big screen. Enjoy Happy Feet in the Children’s Area of the library then help us celebrate Traversing Antarctica: the Australian Experience at the Museum of the Riverina with a screening of Happy Feet 2, in the Historic Council Chambers.

Warning: some movie scenes may scare very young children.You are welcome to bring yummy snacks and a snuggly pillow.

Where: Wagga Wagga City Library
When: Wednesday 16 April 2014, 10:30am: Happy Feet (G) 92 minutes
Wednesday 23 April 2014, 10:30am: Happy Feet 2 (G) 104 minutes 
Cost: Free

Mothers' Day Weekend Drop In Snow Dome Factory

Make mum’s day this Mothers’ Day with a personalised snow globe. We’re opening up the craft cupboard for a 2-day drop-in program, so you can draw and colour your own picture and turn it into a snow globe. A perfect gift to give to, or make with mum on her special day.

WHEN
Saturday 10 May 10:00am-05:00pm and
Sunday 11 May 12:00pm-04:00pm
WHERE
Museum of the Riverina 
Historic Council Chambers site
Corner of Morgan and Baylis Streets
Wagga Wagga 
Drop-in Program No bookings necessary, visit during opening hours to participate

Dr. Neill Overton presents:

"Trapped in the snow, isolated from all human contact. The radio is dead, and tapping out a staccato beat in morse code brings no reply from the nearest base 1,000 miles away. What happened to the Norwegian expedition?  It’s been 30 days since we’ve heard a thing? And Sorenson has been acting so strangely, locked away in the boiler room... the back-up generator’s not working either. Why are the dogs still howling across the permanent night? Here in the Antarctic terrain, all is shrouded in biting white, of ice sheets slapping deep across the rooves of the barracks and shacks. If the generator can’t be fixed, we won’t last a week. The window’s broken in the doctor’s lab downstairs. Where is doc? And what could make that kind of damage to the..."

Thus the scene is set for snow-trapped adventure, in the hostile, unforgiving winter snow-deserts of the wilderness.  The films here are all ice-pics... stories of the snow-trapped genre, both fact and fiction.  From Scott of the Antarctic (1948), the best of the British bio-pics regarding Scott’s expedition to place the British flag at the South Pole in 1912... through to the interplanetary visitations and body-snatching shape changers of The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Thing (1982).  The Antarctic base is also an isolated “old dark house” of confining, permanent night of stalking murder in the frozen wastelands in Whiteout (2009).

What do these films say about the Antarctic? That it sits like a barely flickering lamp-light at the edge of our subconscious... mysterious, remote and indistinct through veils of blinding snow. Nature is a sublime force in rags, waiting to reclaim our civilised borders. It is the edge of the known world, from which extremes we measure our own lives as mundane. The glassy cliffs of Antarctica as perhaps the last wilderness... a land that is still primal. It is the winter dreamscape of icy mountain peaks; of lost and last frontiers where our planet can neither be spoilt nor subjugated; it is beyond our control, and snares our imagination.

WHEN
Friday 23 May 
The Thing From Another World* (1951) PG 6:30pm
The Thing (1982) MA15+ 8:20pm

Friday 30 May
Scott of the Antarctic (1948) PG 6:30pm
Whiteout (2009) 8:40pm MA 15+ 8:40pm

WHERE
Museum of the Riverina 
Historic Council Chambers site
Corner of Morrow and Baylis Streets
Wagga Wagga

*Print courtesy of National Film and Sound Archive

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Protecting the Antarctic Environment- Public Lecture

Australia’s scientific research, international engagement, and management of Antarctic activities leads the way in Antarctic environmental protection. Dr. Phillip Tracey will talk about how Antarctica is protected as a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science, and Australia's ongoing work to strengthen the environmental protection regime.

This lecture is a FREE public program presented in conjunction with the touring exhibition, Traversing Antarctica: The Australian Experience

WHEN
Sunday 15 June 2pm
WHERE
Museum of the Riverina 
Historic Council Chambers site
Corner of Morgan and Baylis Streets
Wagga Wagga