This week we have finished projects, been to the casino, enjoyed an amazing dinner, retrieved the Mount Brown folks, featured in a film production and baked bread

Station Update

The wind down of summer is well underway here at Davis though at times it has felt like the wind up!

Lots going on as usual as we pack and finish off projects and squeeze in a few extra bits like servicing and replacing fire sprinklers in all the buildings.

The sun has been setting here again in recent weeks and many photographers have been enjoying the light. Our basketball fanatics have also been out on the ice court shooting hoops while many have enjoyed local walks and continued boating trips to the Sørsdal Glacier. The social scene has been busy with a casino night and an amazing end of summer dinner with food from our three sensational chefs.

The big news this week was getting all of the people and cargo out of Mount Brown. The team and camp had been there for 70 days, done an amazing job retrieving a precious ice core and then finished off the arduous task of packing tents and loading planes to come back to Davis. For the final push we sent in a team of five to help dig out tents and to pack up to make sure we got it done while the weather allowed. Great stuff by Sharon, Bloo and Paulie, the last of the Mount Brown team, who finally came out for a well earned shower!

Our fixed wing aircraft have gone now, they are on the way home to Canada via Casey and as a result the aircraft ground support team are well advanced in packing up the plateau skiway at Whoop Whoop.

We have had a media team here the last week making a 360 virtual reality film about Davis and the work here. They had some amazing technology to capture footage with including a few drones that took to the skies around the Sørsdal Glacier. The film will premiere at the WA Maritime Museum in June and then tour Australia and overseas museums.

Despite all this effort we still have time for a bowl of soup and fresh bread at lunch. Speaking of which, meet Norman in the article below.

By Robb (Station Leader).

The life of Norman

It’s the little things in life, and it’s also the little things on station that make us feel at home, like Norman.

Please meet Norman everyone, he is the beginning of our sourdough here at Davis. Norman was created by our summer chef, Kim, who has been looking after this lovely sourdough starter all summer. As I now understand, there are a few rules in how we look after Norman in order to have all the yummy goodness of a fresh crusty loaf of bread with our lunch time soup.

Norman must be fed each night if we are to produce the lovely loaves of bread the next day. It takes about eight hours for Norman to eat the fresh flour and water that is prepared for him. In this process, Norman will more than double in size. When it is time to start the days bread, Norman is divided in half, half is for today and the other half of Norman will go back to sleep in the fridge waiting patiently to be feed later that night.

There is quite a process to go through in order to make the very popular and highly anticipated sourdough, but I won’t bore you with that. The beauty of Norman is that he is a white flour starter, which allows us to make many different types of loaves. We have had a light Rye, traditional white, multigrain, olive and rosemary (my personal favourite) and currently we are making whey sourdough using the left over whey from making ricotta cheese.

I have definitely been inspired to make my own Norman upon returning home.

By Sara (Engineering Services Supervisor).

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