It has been a busy week cutting the grass, hosting visitors and farewelling a friend.

Cutting the grass

Macquarie Island is the only Australian Antarctic station where it is necessary to do some gardening.  On Saturday the team of Belinda, Julia and Meg were out cutting the grass!  Ummm! What a wonderful smell!

Tourist ship visits

This year fifteen vessels have visited Macquarie Island with over 1000 passengers keen to see and understand the amazing wildlife and the management programs taking place to help conserve this World Heritage Site. Extra visits were planned this year, as part of the celebration of the Mawson Centenary. Macquarie was the site for Mawson’s radio station, through which the first radio communication from Antarctica to the outside world was received.

Everyone who visited was thrilled to be able to see large numbers of wildlife up close, and appreciated what a special place Macquarie Island is.

The last ship to visit was the Spirit of Enderby, from New Zealand. This was a private charter, organised by New Zealand businessman and philanthropist Gareth Morgan. The 30 day voyage was open to all New Zealanders but everyone onboard would have to make a contribution to the project.  He asked people to submit applications for the trip, then selected a broad range of people to accompany him on a trip through the NZ and Macquarie sub-Antarctic Islands and down to the Ross Sea — to learn and then to raise New Zealanders’ awareness of the area & its importance  He asked people to submit applications for the trip, then selected a broad range of people to accompany him on a trip through the NZ and Macquarie sub-Antarctic Islands and down to the Ross Sea – to learn and then to raise New Zealanders' awareness of the area & its importance

It was a pleasure to meet everyone who visited the island this summer, and to show them our island home. They are all now advocates for the care and protection of this wonderful place.

Saying goodbye

Saying goodbye to Dean.

Dean has been on Macquarie Island for sixteen months — arriving to carry out research on fur seals, and, when that job was completed, he then took up work with the Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Program (MIPEP) as a hunter.

In his last few days on the island he did a quick circuit of various field huts to say goodbye to his fellow islanders and to the island itself. On the last day of his trek he covered 40 kms!

With a few people expected to pop in to Green Gorge for lunch to say goodbye to Dean, lunch preparations began. There was left over pizza from the night before and Nancye decided to make vegetarian savoury muffins. The mixture was prepared and then it was discovered that there was no muffin tray in the hut. ANARE ingenuity came to the fore and muffin trays were made with alfoil wrapped around a variety of jars to get the shape. All worked well and Dean enjoyed the treat, more than having to say goodbye to the friends he has made here.

Dean then slogged on and arrived at base to find a vegetarian feast awaiting him. He followed this up with a musical soiree of songs that he had composed during the year.

Everyone was down at the beach to wave him off — good luck Deano!

And Hello!

Hello to Lisa and Robbie, who arrived to work on research into remediating the effects of fuel spillages in the sub-Antarctic environment.

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