Herbert Victor Goddard was second steward on the voyage of SY Aurora under Captain John King Davis, to retrieve Douglas Mawson and the remaining members of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) from Commonwealth Bay in the summer of 1913–14. He kept a previously unpublished diary in pencil. He was on his first and only voyage working at sea and the diary records observations by an optimistic newcomer to the region. It gives the view of the voyage from eyes different from those of the leaders of the expedition, records the daily routine on-board, and documents a few incidents not covered in the formal reports of the expedition.

The United Nations (UN) has now been involved with the ‘Question of Antarctica’ for 20 years. Divisions within the international community about the most appropriate form of management for Antarctica, which was presented to the UN as a region of global importance, have never completely disappeared, even if the restoration of a consensus approach during the mid-1990s was based upon a broader appreciation of the merits of the Antarctic Treaty System. Both Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties and non-Consultative Parties, pointing to the regime's enduring intrinsic qualities, have adopted an unyielding attitude towards Treaty outsiders advocating a more democratic, accountable, and transparent regime. Even so, the critical lobby, led by Dr Mahathir's Malaysian government, has never gone away. Initially, the ‘Question of Antarctica’ was discussed at the UN on an annual basis, but since 1996 it has been placed on a triennial reference. Following the most recent session in late 2002, the topic is scheduled to be placed on the UN's agenda again in 2005. This article reviews critically the key themes characterising the UN's involvement in the ‘Question of Antarctica’ since 1983, while using successive Polar Record articles on individual UN sessions to provide a framework of reference and an informed basis for further research on the topic.

Cutcliffe Hyne, a popular late-nineteenth-century writer, and his artist friend Cecil Hayter travelled overland from Varanger Fjord in Arctic Norway to the head of the Gulf of Bothnia in the summer of 1896. The ostensible aim of the trip was to observe the Sami in their own habitat, but it also had an element of adventure for its own sake. Approximately half of the distance was accomplished on foot and the rest by canoe or post cart. They were ill-prepared for the journey and experienced considerable problems in securing food at various farms and villages at which they stopped en route. Hyne wrote a travel book based upon the trip entitled Through Arctic Lapland, and this is of interest today as providing a first-hand account of the way of life of the inhabitants of the region through which they passed and also as an example of a style of travel writing that was then common but is now extinct.

The Australian Antarctic Division manages four permanent stations in the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic. At each station a municipal waste incinerator is used to dispose of putrescible waste, wood, paper, cardboard, and plastics. Incineration significantly reduces the volume of waste but this combustion also emits toxic compounds. This study examined the waste incineration stream at Casey Station, Australian Antarctic Territory. The waste stream was sorted, burnt, and the incinerator emissions monitored. Twelve chemical compounds in gaseous emissions and heavy metals in the ash were measured. Results indicate that emissions of carbon monoxide are higher than one might expect from a small incinerator, and hydrocarbon emissions from the incinerator exceed combined hydrocarbon emissions from other sources on station. Arsenic and copper concentrations in ash, which is returned to Australia for disposal, exceed limits for hazardous waste disposal and so treatment would be required. Recommendations are provided on controlling source material in order to reduce or eliminate toxic emissions and undertaking incinerator maintenance to optimise combustion.

Buildings were constructed and artefacts left behind on sub-Antarctic Heard Island, associated with Antarctic research expeditions since 1926. Both bryophytes and vascular plants are colonising many parts of the now derelict buildings. On these structures and artefacts, the authors recorded four species of vascular plants out of the 11 that occur on Heard Island and nine species of mosses out of the 37 recorded from Heard Island. The vascular plant species most frequently recorded colonising structures and artefacts was Pringlea antiscorbutica (288 occurrences), with the area colonised varying from 0.3 cm2 to 430.0 cm2. Muelleriella crassifolia was the moss species that was most frequently recorded (14 occurrences), colonising areas from 2.1 cm2 to 12.9 cm2. The highest number of bryophyte species (seven) was recorded on the stone and cement of the ‘water tank.’ Pringlea antiscorbutica, Poa cookii, Azorella selago, Muelleriella crassifolia, Bryum dichotomum, Dicranoweisia brevipes and Schistidium apocarpum are all expected to continue to colonise the ANARE ruins, as well as areas that have become available since building removal and also possibly areas bared by further deglaciation.

Past documented laboratory measurements have shown movement of petroleum hydrocarbons to the freezing front in contaminated freezing soils. The mechanisms that are, in part, responsible for the increased contaminant concentration at the freezing front are illustrated in this study with a mass-balance model. Results from this quantitative analysis show that this concentration increase is due to exclusion of petroleum hydrocarbon from the crystalline ice structure and from physical displacement of liquid petroleum hydrocarbon from the pore space as water freezes and expands into ice. Consequences of this process in relation to contaminant migration in freezing soils through time are discussed.

A once-restricted report dealing with the first (and only) official East German Antarctic expedition to Prydz Bay, East Antarctica, is discussed. Members of ‘die Ergebnisse der DDR-Erkundungsexpedition’ (EREX 79/80) were in the Larsemann Hills during the 1979–80 season. From ground (17 January) and aerial examination (17 January, 8 February), a site on eastern Broknes was selected for a future station; proposed facilities and some EREX observations are presented. Implications and consequences of the visit are discussed in relation to subsequent station development in the Larsemann Hills.

This article examines the impacts of burgeoning globalisation on small fishery-based villages in Iceland. With economic restructuring, new technologies in production, and changing labour migration, the inhabitants are not uniformly able to take advantage of current changes, and some have lost while others have gained. The paper examines the effects on people's lives and experiences and how they cope with these changes locally. The discussion is based on ethnographic field research in the 1990s. It takes a particular look at aspects of local identities that are related to gender and nationality. Since gender and ethnic differences are embedded in social institutions, they are integral parts of individuals' strategies to make better lives for themselves. Gender and nationality are constructed in the process of societal transformations. The primary goal of this paper is to shed light on gender in relation to current transformation. However, nationality is a new marker of difference within the localities — with the growing number of immigrants — that is important to consider. Combining attention to gender and ethnic constructions gives a broad picture of life in fishery villages in the Arctic and the various strategies applied by the inhabitants.