This season, Casey station has a team of seven carpenters: Michael Keating Kearney, Jimmy Douglas, Danny LeFerve, Cam Lea, Mark Green, Scott Clifford, and Glen Pretious. With seven chippies on station you would think we would be cruising. Well, this certainly is not the case with the amount of work on the books this year. Nothing we can’t handle though!
Major projects and installations for this season have seen some awesome efforts from the team, as we are only half way through the summer season (which has flown by), we show no signs of slowing down. The amazing thing about working in Antarctica is the variety of work we get to be involved with. From building huts to be installed 450km from station, assisting NASA with their next major mission to space in the search for life, to installing tea towel rails in the kitchen.
In a major undertaking we have been involved in is the preparation of four new fibreglass huts called Melons. These are to replace the aging huts currently in place at Bunger Hills, 450km from Casey, on an ice-free area of Antarctica. All materials and equipment will be flown out to the site by fixed-wing plane that will land on the sea ice. Not a simple task, with the preparation for the project ensuring that nothing is forgotten. All prefabricated Melons were built on station, bases put together, tools and equipment collated, then packed and prepped. The stage has been set and next season we will be able to install the Melons on site.
With all this work there has been time to get out and about the wilderness and explore all that Antarctica has to offer. It certainly is a special place to live and work, and why I come back.
Glen Pretious
Building Services Supervisor / Winter Carpenter