Antarctic video gallery
Southward Bound
Video transcript
Charlton Clark, General Manager Operations & Safety, Australian Antarctic Division:
Today the MPV Everest, the icebreaker the Australian Antarctic Program is using for the 2020-21 season, departs from Hobart on a month long voyage to Casey station to conduct a resupply and transport expeditioners to Antarctica.
On board are more than 680 tonnes of cargo and a million litres of fuel to resupply Casey station for the year ahead.
The MPV Everest has an international crew with significant Arctic and Antarctic experience. They have the latest Polar Code training, and they’re operating one of the most highly capable and sophisticated ice-class vessels operating in Antarctica at the moment.
At 145 metres long, it gives a sense of the scale of Australia’s new icebreaker, the 160 metre long Nuyina.
The Everest is a state-of-the-art vessel, it’s equipped with the most comprehensive modern navigation equipment, safety equipment, it represents a real step-change from the Aurora Australis and really is closer to what we’re going to be experiencing in the future with the Nuyina coming online in seasons to come.
COVD-19 precautions include two weeks of isolation and three tests before boarding.
The Everest will not only be resupplying our stations, it’s also bringing back expeditioners who have been in Antarctica for over a year now, so people who will be coming back to a world that’s changed dramatically since they departed.
About 100 expeditioners will travel south and come home on MPV Everest this year.
I reckon anyone who’s going on a new ship is always going to be excited. Going to Antarctica is a special experience.
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Operation Tradies
Video transcript
"My name's Danielle McCarthy. I'm going to be down at Mawson station as Senior Observer with the Bureau of Meteorology."
"I'm Tom Jurs, I'm a carpenter heading south for the 2020 season... 2021 season."
"Being down south, we practice an isolated healthcare model so it's a single doctor model for each Antarctic station and as part of that we rely on our lay surgical assistants to assist us if we need to perform an operation."
"The scenarios that we run through together is a great chance to see how we each work individually, potentially what people's strengths and weaknesses are and how we can start that bonding with communication and also with the way we're going to work together in the future."
"As a lot of them are tradies or come from a scientific background they very quickly realise that a lot of the equipment that we use here or the just the way the body works, is similar to a lot of, you know, machines and plumbing that they might have come across already."
"They're really really good, really easy to teach. They absorb a lot and they learn so much in such a short amount of time."
"That's one of the reasons why the Centre for Antarctic Remote and Maritime Medicine has been set up here in Tasmania in collaboration with the Antarctic Division, because we really are a world centre of excellence when it comes to that medical training for remote and extreme environments."
"You'd have no usual business walking from a construction site into a hospital room and assisting with surgery. It's been incredibly stimulating and rewarding."
"That was a very good learning experience, a real life-type scenario and we covered a lot of points."
"It's one of the things that keeps me coming back during this course. It's really encouraging to see how excited and engaged they are with the process."
"I think they went absolutely brilliant. I've got every confidence that if we have to do any surgical or medical procedures for anybody, they're going to be in the safest hands possible. To see people from such diverse backgrounds stepping into a field that's so different for them and doing so with courage and confidence, is wonderful to see."
[end transcript]
Under The Milky Way
Video transcript
For the Antarctic...
Those frozen mornings, I went and asked my research assistant what she was doing, she said 'Nothing, let's go for a walk on the ice'.
We walked out together, our breath turning into beautiful clouds of steam, and we spoke of meteorological patterns and the currents of the ocean, we spoke about wildlife, and the seasons, and the future spreading out...
Good morning people, my name is Steven Kilbey, and I'm the bassist and singer in a band called The Church.
I wrote this song, it came out quite a while ago called 'Under The Milky Way', which people have assured me has since become an iconic song.
Well, I've re-recorded this song with Barton Price on drums, Roger Mason on keyboards, and Gareth Koch on guitar.
We've re-recorded this song as a recruitment advertisement to get Australian people to go down and work with the Australian Antarctic Division down in Antarctica.
For my friends in the Antarctic!
Yeah, let's get some people down to Antarctica and see what's going on.
[end transcript]
Master plan for Davis research station
Video transcript
Last year, the Australian Government committed $450m to upgrade Australia’s network o Antarctic research stations.
Work has started on a master plan for Davis research station.
Kim Ellis, Director, Australian Antarctic Division: The opportunity to redevelop these stations, to create something really sustainable and absolutely support the very best of scientific research that allow us to collaborate and engage with agencies here in Australia and internationally – and it’s unprecedented and a terrific opportunity for us to get this right.
What will Davis station look like in 2050?
Kim Ellis: The Davis station of the future brings together that strong expedition history, so that engagement, understanding of Antarctica, protection of the environment, and it takes it to another level.
It makes the station sustainable, reduces our dependence on carbon fuels, it reduces our footprint in Antarctica, in improves our waste disposal, our energy utilisation and our living conditions.
It brings better laboratories that allows our scientists from inside the Australian Antarctic Division, from across the Program and internationally, to undertake research that we’ve never undertaken before.
It integrates remote sensing and remote vehicles to allow us to reach well beyond the area we’ve currently been able to engage.
And it brings safety and living conditions that we haven’t had before.
That focus on the human occupation – encouraging and enabling diversity in the people who work for us, and ensuring they are safe and happy – both physically and psychology in the station.
Master plans will also be developed for Casey and Mawson research stations.
[end transcript]
Incoming Casey Station Leader Kyle Williams is looking forward to the challenge
Video transcript
Antarctic Station Leaders - Season 2020-21
Kyle Williams - Casey research station
"Antarctica in my opinion is the most beautiful yet challenging workplace on the planet. It has everything you have in Australia bar none, and at the same time it has these amazing landscapes and wildlife and an unbelievable environment that is simply unmatched so for most people that go that is probably one of the highlights of their experience.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic this will be an Antarctic season unlike any other.
So for our expeditioners this season it’s going to be quite different for them. So some of the things we’ve included in that is a two-week period of quarantine prior to them heading south, there’ll be COVID testing for all of our expeditioners and then upon arrival on station all of our expeditioners will take another period of enhanced social distancing and that will include COVID-19 testing.
Casey is traditionally the busiest of our Antarctic stations and that’s due to the air link with Wilkins. This season it’ll be a little bit different across the program so none of the other stations aside from Casey will have a summer program. And at Casey we won’t be conducting the traditional intra-continental sites between Casey and Davis and Mawson. In saying that though Casey will still have a summer program so it will be quite busy for us.
People that go to Antarctica, that head south, have a very adventurous spirit and two of the very key qualities personally for all of those that I’ve seen is resilience and adaptability, and that’s what you need in spades when you go to Antarctica. Things always change, there’s always a different challenge, particularly given the current state of the world, so whilst it will be a challenge in a COVID world new normal, I think everyone will be up to the challenge and will have a really good season."
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