I used to collect and read antique and vintage books on Arctic and Antarctic exploration , even wrote a small essay on historic scientific work done by early explorers that was published in the Age. I remember my bosses were really chuffed and a quiet colleague in the same unit but a different wing came to my office to tell me all about his famous explorer uncle who went with Shackleton.

Early British and Australian expeditions were disasters because they were outfitted so poorly and lacked a lot of the traditional knowledge needed for survival. They did not lack for bravery. Amundson showed how to do it.