Heading south to the icy continent, it's hard to know exactly what life will be like for the humble carpenter. The community here at Casey station is incredible, there are so many fascinating individuals all 'leaning forward' in their individual ways. It's a real honour to be apart of such a unique community and also help individuals with their creative endeavours . The chippies are always kept busy with plenty of maintenance items to oversee to keep the station 'humming'. These range from installing tailor made, space-aged satellite covering panels (ANARESAT Dome) to adjusting doors so they shut quietly in the accommodation areas. “Don’t wake the shift workers!”
While the hobby hut (our dedicated space for all things hobby related) was partially out of action, the chippies workshop became the hub of creation where dreams became reality for many. With a little bit of guidance and some alcohol bartering, many chippies lent a hand to see these projects become reality. Some of them included a 3D chess set made by one of the chippies Dave, and a new sign for the Casey signpost, which is pointing directly down to Yellowknife in Canada – the other side of the planet!
A recent event around station was the KBA Challenge. Any and all members on station could participate in traversing a 10 km route starting at the Skiway (local lightplane airstrip) in any manner they choose, eg running, riding, skiing or walking.
Some participants weren’t satisfied with 10 km and pushed the physical limits and ran all 42 km to complete a marathon – amazing efforts by all involved. The KBA challenge is held every year now in memory of 3 Kenn Borek Pilots who tragically lost their lives when their plane crashed in Antarctica in 2013.
One of our team members has also been making fun videos of life at Casey, with some videos gaining millions of views on Instagram! This has led to him doing some filming for the BBC YouTube channel. So if you’re keen to get a further glimpse into the life of a carpenter in Antarctica, keep an eye out on YouTube over the coming months!
