This series consists of thirteen lantern slides, two of which are colour slides (the colour lantern slides are "Paget" plates - an early colour process based on the additive effects of colour in a mosaic of red, blue and green squares), and twenty-three glass plates three of which are colour images (they are Agfa colour plates).
 
The thirty-six images in the series were purchased by Australian Archives on 12 February, 1976 from Berkeleow Fine and Rare Books, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. It is believed that the images were a part of Charles Francis Laseron's library which Berkeleow's purchased some time after Laseron's death in June 1959.
 
Although these images were in Laseron's possession they were
certainly not all photographed by him. Some of the images were definitely taken by James Francis Hurley, the Expedition's official photographer, other images appear to be collaborative.
 
The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was a scientific expedition consequently the photographs taken are of geological, geographical and biological interest. The photographs are of Adelie Penguins, Weddell and, possibly, Crab Eater seals, geological formations,(eg ice cliffs, coastlines, rocky hills), the Main Base Hut and members of the Expedition.
 
At the conclusion of the Expedition Sir Douglas Mawson agreed to the proposal put by the NSW Government that the Expedition's findings would be published if Mawson agreed to deposit the records of the Expedition with the Mitchell Library. Therefore, a full collection of the Expedition's glass plates is held by the Mitchell Library (it may be the only comprehensive one). It is not known whether the images in this series are duplicates of items in the full collection - it is technically possible that all except items [18] - [20] are duplicates.
 
Notwithstanding Mawson's agreement with the NSW Government some records of the Expedition are held elsewhere - geological specimens are held by the NSW Geological Museum and Mawson's records of other explorations, as well as some of the Australasian Antarctic
Expedition, are held by the Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research at the University of Adelaide.
 
Prints have been produced from the plates for reference use.