It's a part of the world most of us will never visit - and a place that changes people in ways they never expected.
And while most of us will never experience the extremes of Antarctica, we well understand the pull to one of the most extreme environments on Earth.
Antarctica has fascinated generations of Australians for the past two centuries, drawing people to its frozen and fragile centre to learn more about a history that stretches back millions of years.
Or, you know, just for the challenge - to prove that we can do it.
The new winter exhibition at the National Museum of Australia shows how the frozen continent has continued its influence on our climate and marine ecosystems - and our imaginations.
Thanks to a massive collection donated by the Australian Antarctic Division in 2022, the museum acquired more than 1000 objects, including vehicles, clothing, food, taxidermied specimens and the personal diaries and mementos of some of history's most intrepid explorers.
For this exhibition, curators Laura Cook and Jono Lineen culled these down to 200 objects to tell the story of Australia's complicated connection to Antarctica.
Mr Lineen likes to say that Australia, or at least Sydney, was built on the back of whales, rather than sheep.
It was Captain James Cook's early accounts of "whales as far as the eye could see", and "seals on every shore" that convinced many there was money to be made in the southern oceans.
"That was actually the economic start of colonial Australia, NSW, and Van Diemen's Land," he said.
"From the 1790s up until the 1820s, Sydney's economy was based on whales in the sea."
Among the objects in the show are skis, a sled and other equipment used on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Douglas Mawson from 1911 to 1914, and survival items like ration packs and protective clothing.
And the dogs - we can't forget the devoted huskies, who pulled the sleds and kept the men company. While some were left behind - it's hard to forget the story of Douglas Mawson's dog, whose remains were left safely under the bed - many were brought home and taxidermied.
There are also photos, letters, books, boots and mementoes from generations of explorers.
Among them is a ticket of passage for a young Irish woman who travelled from Plymouth to Sydney in 1878 on the ship the Hawkesbury.
The woman was Mary Corrigan, and she was on her way to work as a domestic servant in Queanbeyan.
She was also, eventually, the mother of Ben Chifley, Australia's 16th prime minister, from 1945 to 1949.
There are also letters from explorer Tannat Edgeworth David, one of Australia's most important geologists, to his family back home.
He wrote them in Antarctica in 1907, while he was chief scientist on Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition.
Edgeworth David had brought with him one of his proteges, a young man named Douglas Mawson, who went on to become Australia's most famous Antarctic explorer.
One of the letters was addressed to Edgeworth David's wife and children, to be sent if he didn't return from a gruelling 2000-kilometre sledging expedition that Mawson and he were planning to make to become the first people to reach the Magnetic South Pole. It speaks of undying love, and "God in his Mercy".
He did reach the Magnetic South Pole, but he almost died on the way. The letters, emotional and raw for a scientist, remind us of the huge risks these groups undertook, in the name of adventure and science.
Early explorers and scientists sought wealth, adventure and knowledge, and those who survived were transformed by the experience
Nowadays, a small and vibrant ecosystem of humanity exists on this completely inhospitable outpost, and no one - other than lucky summer tourists in no mood to relax - goes there for fun.
Mr Lineen said Antarctica was the kind of place that changed those who spent time there - usually for the better.
"It's that extreme environment, it's a landscape where, without human-induced food, shelter, water, we can't survive," he said.
"So to survive and thrive in Antarctica - and Australians are experts at this - people are really pushed to the extreme.
"And whether you're a tradie, an electrician putting up lines at minus-50, or a plumber trying to keep water flowing way below zero, or a scientist working on your dream project, Antarctica is a place that really forces you in a lot of ways to be the best person that you can be.
"That's been one of the gifts of putting this exhibition together, because there's so many of those transformational stories."
