In June 1911, the Aurora arrived in the Thames, where, after being docked, she was thoroughly overhauled and refitted in the South West India Docks under the supervision of Captain John King Davis.

On 28 July 1911 the Aurora dropped down the Thames to Sheerness shortly before midnight. Then on August 4th Captain Davis took the Aurora to Hobart via Cape Town – reaching Hobart on 4th November 1911, a voyage of of 88 days.

By the end of November the Aurora was freighted with some 150 tone of stores, and 386 tons of coal. The Aurora was now ready to start her first voyage to the South as the “Aurora Australis”.

In all the Aurora was to undertake three Antarctic cruises and two sub-Antarctic cruises under the auspices of Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition.