This week at Casey: 10 January 2014

One of the major summer projects for the infrastructure team is essential work on the station fuel storage facility. Much of the work relates to replacing the drain valves on all the fuel tanks and the fuel lines on the station and upgrading the pump sets. With the new work partly completed cleaning of the fuel tanks had become a priority.

Casey has eleven 90000 litre tanks and at the end of the season most of that fuel has been used presenting the perfect opportunity to clean the tanks. Normally one or two tanks are attempted each season but on this occasion the team attempted to clean as many as possible finally ending up with a total of nine out of eleven cleaned over the two days operation.

Cleaning the tanks is not a straight forward operation requiring confined space entry, managing a hazardous environment and working at heights. With every safety box ticked the task proceeded without incident and was a credit to all involved. Getting into a fuel tank and scrubbing it down isn’t for everyone so special thanks go to Dave G who volunteered for the job, Michael B, Dan J, Joe B and Steve M who assisted.

Christmas at Casey was celebrated on the 28^th December this year, due to working around resupply and other operations on station. Activities of the day included a visit from Santa and his many helpers, the distribution of presents via a Kris Kringle system, a ping pong tournament that resulted in victory for the “O” team (Olivia and Olivier), many games of cricket on the helipad, an all station photograph and finally a delicious Christmas feast.

The Christmas table featured some impressive ice carvings, including a penguin centre-piece and two ice bowls. The food was outstanding and was the talk of the night, as was the decorations and table décor including three dimensional biscuit dinosaurs that had managed to sneak their way into the Christmas theme.

Consisting of a chef, pilot, environmental scientist, engineering services supervisor and a plant operator this unlikely group united to form the 2013/14 Summer version of the Casey station band. After a few rehearsal sessions and the all important selection of a set list, “Scruffy and the Permafrosts” performed on New Year’s Eve for the very first time. They were an instant hit, with members of the crowd joining in on stage for the final songs (no karaoke machine required!).

The following images were taken on a recent trip to Wilkes by the summer tradespersons.