AAE position: Cartographer

In their own words

… everything is just ripping, we are landing in a place that will make the whole civilized world wonder … when I think of the all the fellows slaving in offices in cities when there is all this beautiful God’s world to explore & all its wonders to see, I pity them, this is living not merely existing, I cannot do justice to my subject on paper, it is too wonderful.

— George Dovers, letter to Peg and family dated 16 February 1912

Born in 1890, Dovers hailed from Sydney, where he was completing his term for licensed surveyor in the service of the Commonwealth Government when he joined the AAE. A member of several sledging parties, he acted as cartographer to the party which reached Gaussberg.

In his later life Dovers was involved in an unsuccessful cotton-planting experiment in Nyasaland (modern Malawi). His son, Robert Dovers, also a surveyor, was second-in-charge of the 1948 wintering party on Heard Island — the first Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition. In 1954 Robert Dovers led the first wintering party at Australia’s Mawson station.