Cloth Badges of Mawson ANARE
By Rod Johns
“Papa George” Hedanek – C79, M81, C83 & C86 – Plant Inspector. He was very proud of his cloth-badge decorated jacket. A great expeditioner and everyone liked “Papa George”.
Introduction
My name is Rod Johns and I am a retired Police Superintendent from Victoria, I have been a collector of Police and related badges and cloth patches for more than 40 years. I am the President of the Police Insignia Collectors Association of Australia Inc. The club members collect Police, Fire, Ambulance, Military, National Parks Conservation and the like.
My Interest in ANARE Cloth Badges
A few years ago, after one of my sons completed a Degree in Environmental Science, I became interested in the collection of Conservation, Fisheries, National Parks and then ANARE cloth patches. I learnt that for every season at Mawson, Casey, Davis or Macquarie Island a dated commemorative patch was produced and then issued to team members. I have been unable to determine when this practice commenced, with the oldest items I have, being produced in 1980 for Macquarie Island and Davis. I have 80 Australian Antarctic patches in my collection as well as a few from New Zealand.
Expanding My Collection
I am always on the lookout for more to fill the many gaps! The hobby is like stamp collecting which I know is popular with some ANARE members. However, the badges are very difficult to obtain. For the 65th Anniversary of Mawson I was asked to do a short article with images as it may be of interest to some ANARE Club members – I hope so! Best regards Rod Johns
Jaimie Cleeland in inflatable boat, Macquarie Island 2005 © Jaimie Cleeland, AAD
Polaris Sno Traveler on fast ice, Kemp Land, 1965 © Phillip (Phil) Law, AAD
Kim Ellis at Casey Station, 2019 © Nisha Harris, AAD
Expeditioner entering tent, 1977 © Thomas (Tom) Maggs, AAD
Photo acknowledgements
Thanks to:
– Mary Philpots, the daughter of George Hedanek, for the photo of her father’s jacket – and to Brain Harvey for organizing the photo. Photographer unknown.
– Rod Johns for the photos of his Mawson cloth badges. © Rod Johns
– Tess Egan of the AAD for supplying the final 4 photos from the Division’s collection. Credits as shown above.
