It’s that time of year where the summer season has drawn to a close and the solitude of winter now beckons. But even as the 77th ANARE winterers and last of the summering expeditioners waited for that last Airbus to arrive almost a week ago, there was an (inevitable?) five-day flight delay before the big bird’s wheels touched down at Wilkins Aerodrome. Some would say that the Antarctic Factor (or “A-Factor” as it is known) brought on bad weather and other complicating factors just to tease us, generating frustration for summerers wanting to get home and increasing the anticipation for winterers' who were eager to commence the next chapter of their stay on station.
We have had a multi-faceted season at Casey, consisting of many moving parts, with a number of pressures thrown in to keep us on our toes. To say we’ve been busy is an understatement but we’ve accomplished some huge milestones. Whilst it’s hard to summarise the many activities undertaken this year, here’s a broad snapshot of our 2023/24 season over the months of November to March.
To start off with, we facilitated the busiest aviation program the AAD has ever undertaken, mostly through Wilkins Aerodrome and Casey’s Skiway Landing Area (CSLA). Sixteen A319 AirBus and seven Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Boeing C17 Globemaster inter-continental flights touched down at Wilkins, ensuring that the air ‘corridor’ into Casey delivered the many expeditioners and equipment required to support the summer program. We also flew 75 Basler and Twin Otter sorties out of our CSLA, with many of these linking Casey to locations such as Bunger Hills, Concordia and Zhongshan stations. In doing so, we facilitated over 900 personnel movements in four months of flying – double that of my previous summer at Casey in 2021/22. We also flew two BK117 helicopters, mostly based out of Bunger Hills, to access neighbouring deep field sites for the Denman Terrestrial Campaign (DTC).
It’s fair to say that these aviation successes were instrumental in sustaining Edgeworth David Camp and supporting the varied DTC science projects this season – which in itself was a monumental achievement for the Australian Antarctic Program (AAP).
While it’s easy to focus on aviation and those directly involved in these operations (like pilots, aviation ground support crews, Burea of Meteorology, communications etc) it’s always an all-of-station effort to enable these and other deep field and station-based activities. All of our expeditioners were either directly or indirectly responsible for the successful conduct of not only the DTC, but the following:
· The deep-field 1200km ‘road-train’ Traverse from Casey to Little Dome C which successfully pre-positioned vital equipment and stores for the conduct of the AAP’s Million Year Ice Core (MYIC) project in 2024/05.
· A number of science endeavours that included ICECAP (which conducted geophysical surveys between Casey and the Shackleton Ice Shelf, and in vicinity of Concordia); RAID (Australia’s Rapid Access Ice Drill project that gathered ice samples and climate information); Remediation (a team that works to understand and remedy the environmental impacts of past station practises in Antarctica); seabird monitoring and the many unattended science projects off and around station.
· Infrastructure projects and ongoing equipment maintenance, refits and repairs including the AAD’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Uplift Program, the Antarctic Infrastructure Renewal Program (AIRP), various works programs and ongoing monitoring of station site services.
· Support to IPEV (French/Italian) and CHINARE (Chinese) international program transits through station.
· A station resupply and refuel via RSV Nuyina, which delivered around a million litres of special antarctic blend (SAB) diesel to station, along with much needed cargo, foodstuffs and equipment.
So yes, we’ve not only been pretty busy but have had a few challenges to test our mettle along the way. One of these instances was when the station’s population peaked at 156 expeditioners (with everyone returning to station from deep field locations), which was 36 over our maximum bed capacity. We had people temporarily housed on stretchers in one of our gyms, our Odeon theatre, the science building, drying and storage rooms, outdoor accommodations that included our ‘Silver Chalet”, Traverse sleepers and our Itase Van. Everybody did exceptionally well to adjust to these pressures from a community perspective – with big shout-outs to our chefs who continued to feed the many hungry mouths that presented at meal times. Our wastewater treatment plant was certainly put to the test as well!!
So it’s no wonder that many were waiting for this week’s last flight to deliver a highly anticipated and welcomed shift in station operations, population numbers and reduced tempo. We are now a team of 31 members, with around nine months before we head home. While we’ve waved goodbye to valued work colleagues and close friends, our 77th winterers now look forward to the amazing experiences that lie ahead.
Thanks to everyone for a cracker of a 2023/24 summer season. Our station’s community made the seemingly impossible possible. It was indeed a summer sprint and we are now looking forward to the winter marathon yet to come
Dave Buller,
2023/24 Station Leader.
