Polar Pathways Walk | Australian Antarctic Festival 2026

The Australian Antarctic Festival is proud to offer this opportunity for people to learn much more about Hobart’s significant role in current national and international polar research, as well as its many historical associations with the Antarctic, sub-Antarctic and Southern Ocean.

Antarctic Historian and Guide, John Williamson, will lead groups on an educative, informative, and enlightening walk around the Hobart waterfront tracing the 19th-century sealing and whaling industries, early voyages of exploration to the south - including those by Sir Douglas Mawson - scientific expeditions and places of contemporary Antarctic tourism and education.

The walk, taking a little over one hour at a relaxed pace, will begin at the Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum and conclude in St David’s Park.