This week at Casey: 27 November 2015

This week’s news is brought to you by Steve (Kiwi) E, on behalf of the infrastructure team.

The new CUB (Casey utility building) is being constructed this season. This building will house the new waste water treatment plant, new cool rooms and freezers, the gymnasium, spa and sauna, and more storage. The concrete foundations are in and the carpenters, Danny and Mark, are drilling the concrete and fixing in the steel beam foundation bolts. Meanwhile the rest of the team, Kenny, Mike, Tom, and Dean, are unpacking the structural steel work and getting it ready for erection.

The plant operators, Glenn, Simon, Steve, and rigger Tim, are also in full swing removing a redundant fuel tank. The tank had to be emptied of fuel, all pipe openings plugged, and the tank lifted out of the concrete bunding (protective enclosure) ready to be returned to Australia by ship.

This week saw the second arrival of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) C17 Globemaster heavy lift aircraft arrive at Wilkins aerodrome.

The weather could not possibly have been better for the arrival of around 20 RAAF personnel and another 20 staff.

The arrival of the aircraft marks a new era in aviation support for the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), allowing large items to be transported to and from Australia’s Antarctic territory much speedier than via ship.

A brand new Hägglunds tracked vehicle was delivered by RAAF, along with some fresh food supplies, other essential items, and the closest thing to a media scrum for Antarctica who were on hand to record the event. 

A combined RAAF, Army and Navy medical evacuation team was also flown into the aerodrome to practice emergency patient transfers with the local AAD Doctors — a great capacity we hope we wont have to use.