Although it has been a very short summer at Davis this year, a team of two (plus some helpful volunteers) have been progressing road remediation works in the Vestfold Hills to the north of station. Sometimes referred to as the most southerly Landcare project, tracks previously established to access sites for geotechnical and environmental investigations are slowly, but surely, being restored to resemble the surrounding landscape again. With a 30 ton excavator, rakes and hands the team has been making a dent in the remaining 7 km of road still needing restoration.
So why are we restoring a perfectly good track?
The tracks were originally put through the area in 2018-2020 to enable access to areas where geotechnical investigations were undertaken to provide data to enable an assessment of the area’s suitability for the establishment of a paved runway. Once the decision was made not proceed with the runway in this area, the tracks were no longer required for their intended purpose. The installed infrastructure and tracks have progressively been removed and sites remediated as part of the Australian Antarctic Divisions' commitment to projects environmental authorisation conditions regarding the restoration of previously disturbed landscapes. This season’s efforts add to restoration works undertaken in previous seasons and works are likely to be complete after one more season.
