[1] Interannual variations of the flow field and large-scale horizontal transport and mixing inside the wintertime polar vortex of the Southern Hemisphere upper stratosphere are investigated using isentropic winds obtained from the U. K. Met Office assimilated data for nine years of 1992-2000. We focused on the midwinter, July, when the polar vortex is not much distorted, although an eastward propagating wave called the 4-day wave is observed in some years in the polar region. Finite-time Lyapunov exponents are computed, and contour advections are done to examine stirring and mixing in the polar region. When the 4-day wave has a large amplitude, effective mixing through a stretching and folding process is seen inside the polar vortex. Finite-time Lyapunov exponents are sometimes as large as the midlatitudes, and the material contours of small areas grow exponentially in time on the poleward side of 70degreesS. Such mixing properties are not uniform inside the vortex. When the wave is not clearly seen, on the other hand, wind fields are close to a solid body rotation around the pole, and mixing is very small; Lyapunov exponents are small, and the material contours grow linearly in time by the stretching due to the meridional shear of the polar night jet. Such interannual variability of the strength of the mixing is correlated with the variability of the perturbation amplitude of potential vorticity in the polar region.