Mawson Peak

Mawson Peak is an active volcanic summit of the Big Ben massif on Heard Island, an external Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.

With an elevation of 2745 m, it is the third highest peak in any state, territory or claimed territory of Australia, higher than the 2228 m Mount Kosciuszko, and surpassed only by the 3490 m Mount McClintock and the 3355 m Mount Menzies in the Australian Antarctic Territory. The Australian Antarctic Territory is a territorial claim unrecognised by most other countries, meaning that Mawson Peak is the highest mountain over which Australia has true sovereignty. The peak erupts fairly frequently, and as recently as May 2023. Mawson Peak is ranked the 30th of Earth's most topographically isolated summits.

Discovery and naming
Mawson Peak was named by the 1948 Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions Heard Island Expedition after the Australian geologist and explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, the leader of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition 1929–1931, who visited the island in November – December 1929.

On 20 February 1950, whilst aboard HMAS Lebuan, Thomas Gratton Young OAM observed and recorded in the ship's log that Mawson Peak was an active volcano.

In 1964 an expedition to Heard Island was led by Major Warwick Deacock, with the schooner Patanela skippered by Major Bill Tilman. They succeeded in climbing Mawson Peak for the first time. An earlier attempt on the peak during the 1953–1954 research expedition was described by its leader, John Béchervaise.