It’s a very happy new year at Davis station indeed with holiday celebrations, lots of work and more!

Welcome back!

Happy New Year to you and welcome back to Davis Station! We hope our readers have had a happy and restorative festive season.

In the weeks since our last installment, our expeditioners have been busy both on the work front and in preparing for and celebrating Christmas and New Year’s. Behind the stories following, there has been much else going on.

Field research teams have climbed rocky heights to install GPS systems, and plunged sampling containers into deep lakes. Radar data continues to be analysed, biopiles sampled and the final sampling and packing of successfully concluded projects continues.

Infrastructure work has continued on the wharf, in the wastewater treatment facility and with the disassembly of the old batching plant, in addition to ongoing and critical maintenance projects such as the swap out of extinguishers on station. Our air ground support officers have put the finishing touches on a second ski landing area and supported regular aviation operations on station.

Our operations section comprising of forecasters, observers, comms operators, field training officers, pilots and ground crews have facilitated fixed wing and helicopter flights in support of our ski landing area at Woop Woop and to a number of remote field locations. They have been deploying geology teams at Mt Brown and Beaver Lake and returning passengers and cargo to and from Mawson and Casey Stations in addition to local area flying.

Our medical practitioner has been busy with monthly medicals and assisting trades with the reverse osmosis plant to start up water testing.

Our team of chefs had no sooner completed their post-resupply sorting before beginning preparations for Christmas. The work truly paid off to the pleasure and appreciation of the station with sumptuous but beautifully proportioned dishes that reminded all of us what we have to be thankful for. All this against a backdrop of the ice out front of station breaking off and disappearing over the horizon…

James Moloney, Station Leader 

Summer trades photo

With the wastewater treatment plant coming along in leaps and bounds, it was decided that this should be the location for the traditional summer trades photo. If you look closely, in the front of the photo, you'll find Gav with his ‘L plates’ on the concreting gear. Gav is one of our chefs and kindly offered to help out with a pour on one of his days off. His help, like his cooking, was greatly appreciated.

Christmas celebrations

Although we are all away from family and friends, the holiday period here was celebrated in style. Christmas kicked off with a spit roast and an impromptu game of cricket up at the boat shed on Christmas Eve.

Christmas day saw the arrival of Santa with his elves and reindeer to let us know who has been naughty or nice. Christmas dinner was a sumptuous feast that our three superstar chefs had been preparing for weeks. Nothing beats being at home with loved ones though, and all of you were sorely missed with many a quiet moment spent by expeditioners remembering family and friends.

New Years celebrations

New Year’s Eve saw Nina’s, the Davis bar, transformed into a ‘nightclub’ for the celebrations, complete with music, lights, smoke machine, bouncer (security), and even an authentically sticky floor. DJ Stu kept the party going until well into the small hours. We celebrated Tina’s birthday on 31 December, and she still is perplexed as to why everyone is always so excited to count down to the end of her birthday.

Break out the ice

During the Christmas period, the sea ice out the front of station finally decided to break out. This has made the beach a much easier prospect for the local wildlife with the first elephant seals taking advantage of the easier access to make an appearance. The Adélie penguins are also venturing ashore here.

Local comms radio call of the season so far: “All Davis, all Davis, be aware that there is a penguin asleep in the road outside the LQ if you are driving that way..."

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