Antarctic video gallery
Surgical tradies scrub up well
Video transcript
[music]
This patient is suffering from a painful swollen belly and needs urgent medical attention.
It’s a scenario that could happen in Antarctica.
Dr Natasha will be the station doctor at Casey over winter.
>> Dr Natasha Behrendorff, Casey medical officer 2019–2020: Obviously in Antarctica, I’ve got to be the person who either delegates it to someone else or does it.
At each Australian Antarctic research station, there’s one doctor and no nurses.
So each year before they head south, Royal Hobart Hospital trains expeditioners as Lay Surgical Assistants to help the doctor in medical emergencies.
>> Daniel Dardha, Casey plumber 2019–2020: It’s been a massive learning curve, it’s something totally different from being a plumber on the job site to coming into the Hobart hospital, and everyone’s been great here too.
Plumber Daniel finds a bit in common with his day job.
>> Daniel Dardha: Because I was on the anaesthetic side of things, working with the ventilator, so it’s all just air and oxygen and in and out, don’t get them crossed up and make sure there’s no leaks and you’re pretty right to go aren’t you. Q: Just like air-conditioning? A: That’s plumbing, just in a fancy looking box.
Carpenter Glen is on the tools.
>> Glen Pretious, Casey carpenter 2019–2020: Scrub nurse, assisting the surgeon, keeping a sterile field, handling all the instruments for the surgeon. Hand hygiene, as a chippie you don’t normally have clean hands, but you certainly do here.
There are new things for the doctor to learn too.
>> Dr Natasha Behrendorff: It’s interesting, I have to use different language, and guess always be aware they may not recognise when things are deteriorating in the same way that someone else with medical training might.
With a nasty infected appendix removed, this patient will live to train another day.
>> Glen Pretious (Q: after this kind of training, what are you willing to take on?)
I’ll take on anything, after this training! (laughs)
[end transcript]
Designer drill video
Video transcript
Extreme Antarctic conditions require extreme engineering.
Australian Antarctic Division Project Manager, Matt Filipowski: “The materials being used in the drill need to be able to withstand minus fifty degree ice temperatures and also just to operate continuously in that environment.”
The Australian Antarctic Program is designing and building a unique ice core drill.
This new drill refines a design develop with international partners.
It’s nine metres long and made of specialised stainless steel, aluminium bronze and titanium.
The drill will delve 3000 metres into the Antarctic ice cap to extract some of the oldest ice on Earth.
Matt Filipowski: “There’s a sharp cutting tip at the end that works a bit like a hole saw and that cuts a plug out of the ice. Then the drill chamber actually holds that section of ice, and then we winch the drill all the way to the top, to the surface, and we take that long cylindrical core out and then start the process all over again.”
Three metres of ice core will be extracted at a time.
The cores hold chemicals and tiny bubbles of atmosphere from more than a million years ago.
This snapshot will help scientists better predict how the climate might change into the future.
Once built, drilling is expected to commence in Antarctica in 2021.
[end transcript]
Are we there yet?
Video transcript
TEXT BOX: Getting around Antarctica has always been a challenge.
TEXT BOX: From Mawson’s era … to the modern day.
OPERATIONS MANAGER, ROB CLIFTON: I reckon early explorers would be really jealous of the way we get around. I mean now with GPS and vehicles that have got heated cabins, it’s pretty easy I think compared to what they were probably doing.
So it’s a huge area that the Australian Antarctic Territory covers. The distance between stations is equivalent to Melbourne to Brisbane, so it’s a long way.
TEXT BOX: Travel between stations is by small planes.
ROBB CLIFTON: We are operating, obviously, in quite low temperatures, well below zero. And windy conditions as well and often with blown snow, which impedes visibility, which is pretty challenging for aircraft.
TEXT BOX: In winter the sea-ice acts as a highway for expeditioners.
TEXT BOX: They use quad bikes, skidoos and Hägglunds to get out in the field.
TEXT BOX: On the plateau people travel on GPS marked routes.
TEXT BOX: In summer small boats are the transport of choice.
ROBB CLIFTON: You know, in the middle of summer you can be out travelling around by Zodiac boat and then in winter, you can be driving a Hägglunds at exactly the same spot over the frozen ocean. So it takes a bit to get your head around that as a medium.
[end transcript]
Operation appendix
Video transcript
This is not a situation you want to be in during an Antarctic winter.
Australian Antarctic Division, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeff Ayton “The Russian doctor in 1961, Dr Rogozov, having to do his own appendicectomy under local anaesthetic and with assistance from his lay team, which was an extraordinary feat.”
While some people will do almost anything to visit Antarctica. Australian doctors must sacrifice a piece of themselves.
Australian Antarctic Division, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeff Ayton “The Australian Antarctic doctors since 1950 have had to have their appendix out. It’s a unique request and it’s always a discussion point at the interview and the medical screening.” It’s a unique request and it’s always a discussion point at the interview and the medical screening.”
The appendix removal policy came into force after a doctor on Heard Island fell ill, requiring a complex emergency evacuation.
With only a single doctor on each Australian Antarctic station over winter, they must be in good health.
Australian Antarctic Division, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jeff Ayton “It’s not just the instance of appendicitis, it’s the concern about any abdominal mischief and the diagnosis of that remotely when you haven’t got a doctor on site for the doctor. Because appendicitis is a life threatening condition and you can deteriorate within hours to a ruptured appendix and peritonitis and die.” Because appendicitis is a life threatening condition and you can deteriorate within hours to a ruptured appendix and peritonitis and die.”
Despite the unusual job requirement, doctors are still lining up to go south.
[end transcript]
Southern Ocean soundscape
Video transcript
Jacques Cousteau called the underwater world ‘the silent world’ and he couldn’t have been more wrong about that.
There’s a tremendous amount of information that we can learn about the Southern Ocean simply by listening to it.
[Killer whale clicks]
I study underwater sound and particularly the sounds of whales and other marine mammals in the Antarctic.
Blue and fin whales in particular are endangered species. They are very rarely encountered in the Southern Ocean. But when we listen for them, we can hear them over very large distances, so listening for them is an incredibly efficient way to study them.
[Blue whale song]
TEXT BOX: Sonobuoys are deployed from ships to hear and track whales up to 1000km away.
TEXT BOX: Moorings on the sea floor record ocean sounds continuously for one year.
[Whale and seal calls]
TEXT BOX: These yearly sound recordings help scientists learn more about marine mammal behaviour.
A lot of the questions that we're trying to answer; are how many whales are there, where are they, when do we see them? These are really basic fundamental questions that you need to be able to answer if you want to have any chance of conserving and managing populations of whales effectively.
[end transcript]
Antarctic lessons for space
Video transcript
Going to Antarctica is like visiting another planet.
It’s extreme, confined, and isolated.
Chief Medical Officer — Dr Jeff Ayton
“We’ve got isolation for up to nine months of the year, so we can’t get people out of Antarctica. So, we have a small population of 14–25 people at Casey, Davis and Mawson and at sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.”
Australian Antarctic doctors are experts in remote medical care.
This knowledge informs space agencies planning for long-term missions to the Moon or Mars.
Chief Medical Officer — Dr Jeff Ayton
“Australia has been quite successful in undertaking space analogue research in areas such as immunology, but also mental health and behavioural health. How do teams work well together, but also how to individuals work well together and how can we support them.”
Dr Ayton will share his insights from the icy continent Aerospace Futures 2019.
[end transcript]
Midwinter swim 2019
Video transcript
Amy Chetcuti — Davis Station Expedition Mechanic
Doing the swim was exhilarating. You think you are in there for ages, but it was like three seconds, so survival instincts definitely kick in.
Simon Goninon — Davis Station Leader
Water temperature is around minus 2 degrees, maybe just shy of that. Air temperature today is actually pretty good, around minus 22/23, and not a lot of wind, maybe four or five knots. So it’s actually a pretty good day.
The day on station is just really important for people, whether its people who have been coming down here for multiple seasons, or whether its people, like myself who are down here for the first time. It’s just a really nice way to recognise this turning point for winter, for everyone to gather together, and mark it as a really special occasion.
What it’s actually like to actually take this plunge is a bit hard to describe. Your breath gets taken away, it’s just a completely foreign feeling. You’re in sub zero water, the whole fight or flight response kicks in and you really just want to get the hell out of the water. And to be honest it’s once you’re out that’s the worst thing, because you’re dropping 20 degrees getting out of the water and into the air temp.
Luke D’Anastasi — Davis Station Expedition Mechanic
This is my first time down here and swimming in Antarctica was pretty hectic, pretty cold, I felt like my body was on fire and my head was screaming get to the ladder and get out as quick as you possibly could.
Kieran Lusio — Davis Station Boiler Maker
It’s pretty intense, pretty invigorating. But the water is not too bad, it’s just the getting out bit that’s super cold. I really enjoyed it.
[end transcript]