Transitioning from Summer into Winter...
As a relatively new member of the Casey family having arrived in mid February during the busy summer works period, I met over 120 people from all different parts of Australia and all different backgrounds.
Three very busy weeks followed my arrival with a technical hand over, Survival training and getting to know everyone and find where everything is kept, it was a very busy time. However, within 2 weeks I along with the rest of the station were starting to say goodbye to people as the summer works were wrapping up and the flights were coming in to carry everyone home. Going from 125 people for breakfast to 90 for Lunch was a significant drop and everywhere felt less busy.
With a short reprieve of the exodus of people while we had some cargo flights bringing in the final bits to see us through the winter and to return home general cargo, science samples and projects that are complete as well as a number of ice cores from the Million Year Ice Core Project for further work back home in Australia. This period saw the final summer projects wrap up and the summer crew who were still here making their final visits out to field huts for some rest and last minute wildlife spotting.
Before I knew it the next passenger flight was here and with another 30 people heading home that left 60 and things were quieter again.
Just a few short days later in the comms room the radios crackled, “VNJ Casey This is Snowbird 01 on decent into Wilkins.” After what felt like an eternity which was only 1.5 hours the radio crackled “Snowbird 01 departing Wilkins, have a good winter, chat to you at the end of the year. Snowbird 01 out.”
Just like that 33 people remain for winter. That night in the mess as people ate dinner, you could hear a pin drop and almost hear what everyone was thinking.
Over the few days everywhere seems empty. The gym has very few in it and the bar empty with no darts flying through the air, the cinema room pitch black, the mess is a lot more spacious having gone from 6 tables down to 3. As people re-adjust for the coming darkness and winter the cold has already arrived dropping to -15. Its time to rug up and get ready for the next few months of adventure and hopefully very few surprises. I’m looking forward to the screening of ‘The Thing’ now that we are stuck here.
Tom Blunt
Senior Comm's Tech.
Casey Station
