In October, 1923 a Norwegian whale factory ship and five catchers called into Hobart to obtain fresh provisions. Twelve young Tasmanians signed on to go a-whaling in the freezing water of Antarctica's Ross Sea. Altogether 132 young Tasmanians joined Norwegian whaling expeditions over the eight following summers. All of them sought adventure, and none was disappointed. They called themselves 'Tassie's whale boys'. Their diaries tell of long arduous days among stench and filth and of the cruelty of industrial whaling; they tell of biting cold, the omnipresence of danger from ice and storms, dreadful food, and the minuscule pay at journey's end. They also tell of the special camaraderie engendered when spirited young men share such an adventure, and of their unbounded admiration for the solid, dependable Norwegians in whose trust they put their lives. The contrast of industrial whaling with the supremely beautiful Antarctic environment was not lost on any of the young men. Even the least articulate among them tried to express something of the grandeur of Antarctica as the iridescent sun shimmered over the summer horizon. This is their story.

This interdisciplinary edited collection explores and analyses the field of the blue humanities through an Australian lens. The blue humanities is a way of understanding humanity’s relationship with water and manifestations of what is referred to as the ‘blue’ – reefs, oceans, rivers, creeks, basins, and inland bodies of water. In its scope, this collection emphasises both the importance of the local and the interconnectedness of Australia with global environmental concerns. It considers how we conceptualise watery spaces and shades of blue in a country where water is often marked by its absence, its ephemerality, its politicisation, and its dangers. Contributors from environmental history, environmental social science, political science, literary studies, creative arts, Indigenous Knowledge, education, and anthropology tackle various entanglements between the human, the more-than-human, and watery Australian spaces in modern culture. It is the first volume to offer a specific, dedicated focus on the intersections between Australian space and the blue humanities, and it offers a pathway for those wishing to explore, critique, and advance ideas around the blue humanities in both research and teaching. Directly contributing to a growing interdisciplinary field, this is the first book to comprehensively examine the blue in Australia, appealing to scholars, educators, and students working across the humanities and social sciences with an interest in the environmental humanities, ecopolitics, ecocriticism, the blue humanities, cultural geography, environmental history, and the role of place. Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

A happy humpback yearns for warmer seas, for the Antarctic is a little too cold, now that autumn is here. The northward journey that the humpbacks take every year.

Our relationship with animals is complex and contradictory; we hunt, kill and eat them, yet we also love, respect and protect them. This ambivalent relationship is further complicated by the fact that we attribute human emotions and intelligence to animals. We even go as far as likening them to children and treating them as family members. Drawing on a diverse range of case studies, Animals in Person attempts to unravel our close and fascinating link with the animal kingdom. This book highlights the theme of cross-species intimacy in contexts such as livestock care, pet keeping, and the use of animals in tourism. The studies draw on data from different parts of the world, including New Guinea, Nepal, India, Japan, Greece, Britain, The Netherlands and Australia. Animals in Person documents the existence of relations between humans and animals that, in many respects, recall relations among humans themselves.

Tasmania generates more electricity per head of population than any place in the world except Norway, and 99 per cent of that power is generated from clean, self-renewing water. This history seeks to capture the foresight and determination of those who began harnessing this priceless resource late last century, and built an efficient statewide energy grid.