Quentin Bryce has become Australia's first Governor-General to visit Antarctica, taking part in centenary celebrations marking the first Australian voyage to the frozen continent.

Ms Bryce visited Casey Station, a remote field camp, and took part in ceremonies commemorating the 1911-14 Sir Douglas Mawson expedition.

She toured the Wilkins Aerodrome where she used a hammer to unveil a plaque commemorating Mawson's journey by cracking the ice set around it.

"As a little girl I grew up with the stories of those men - Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton - but mostly Mawson," she told travelling media.

"Their courage and bravery, fortitude and determination were values that we grew up with and they were awesome and we admire them.

"It was an enormous pinnacle of human endeavour."

The Governor-General left Hobart for the four-and-a-half-hour flight south on a government Airbus A319 which included a fly-over of Casey Station.

She spent nearly three hours in the -8C temperatures before returning to Tasmania.

Ms Bryce had attended an Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) briefing on Monday where she was told about safety arrangements and what she could expect.

In Antarctica, instead of her usual designer ensembles, she donned a black and yellow AAD-issued survival suit as she toured Wilkins and spoke with scientists and workers from Casey, situated 70 kilometres away.

"It's overwhelming," she said.

"The word pristine is exactly what this is."

Ms Bryce flew back to Hobart with a group of expeditioners who have completed their summer work on the frozen continent.

She will visit Tasmania's bushfire-affected areas on Wednesday.

ABC/AAP