DIARY OF ARCHIBALD MCLEAN

 Archibald Lang McLean in 1911 applied to join Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition as the expedition's doctor and bacteriologist. On the expedition he studied the effects of the Antarctic environment on other members of the expedition and carried out medical tests and examinations. It has been suggested that through this work he laid the foundations for modern physiological research in the Antarctic. When Aurora returned to collect the expedition, Mawson, Ninnis and Mertz had not returned from their sledging expedition and McLean volunteered to stay and if necessary search for Mawson. The story of the second year at Commonwealth Bay was originally told in Mawson's The Home of the Blizzard. The published primary sources about the second wintering have in the past been the diaries of Mawson and Madigan, two men who often did not see eye to eye. McLean's contribution therefore adds a valuable perspective. Â