I thought it would be good to give a little recognition to some of the unsung heroes on station. Science and infrastructure maintenance are our primary focus, however with a winter crew of just 18, we all need to take on secondary roles. There are of course the glamour jobs on the fire team, search and rescue, hydroponics and medical, but it is the less thought of jobs that really make the station tick.
We may be in Antarctica, but Casey is Australian territory and we still have both the right and responsibility to vote, and between Federal and State you can expect an election or two to come along. That’s where our electoral officer Pete comes in, with of course his officious assistant Grant. They were on hand last weekend to see that my vote was counted in the rerun of the Western Australia senate election. Mind you we probably could have done it in the library, instead of −17°C.
As democracy continues, so does hair growth, for many of us anyway (unfortunately mines not on my head). Making people beautiful, that’s the motto for Scotty and Steve’s Styling or Scotty the carpenter and I as the station hairdressers. I cut a good jib but I must say Scotty is the gun, nails it every time. During summer we did have a couple of scientists (mainly Anna) ‘under-cutting’ us, though we are now back in business with a captive market.
Reading is an important activity to both keep the mind active and as a relaxing past time. There is nothing better than finding a little corner of the wallow and while the afternoon away. But those books don’t put themselves back on the shelf! That’s where we need a librarian and Dan is just the man for the job. There is more to it of course than just putting books on shelves. He is the keeper of the keys of knowledge and must ensure the repository of knowledge is well stocked for future generations.
Just as Dan is looking after our minds, so Steve Hankins (gotta be clear about that, there are three Steves on station, all with a ‘V’ — how lucky is the rest of the crew?) looks after our bodies as the gym manager. We have a primary gym upstairs in the green store, with a small cardio room in the red shed and a whole swag of kit including weights, treadmills, exercise bikes, cross trainers and stuff I don’t even know what’s for. So it is up to Steve to keep the gear in good shape as well as encourage healthy activities and diet (along with Doctor Evil, who wants to sabotage sausage roll Tuesdays).
Steve B
