This week at Macquarie Island: 28 March 2014

As we all prepare for the arrival of the L’Astrolabe and the chaos of resupply many of us are saying our last goodbyes to this special island. Last week five Macca expeditioners — Angela and Leona (MIPEP rodent hunters), Kate and I (albatross researchers) and Karen (MIPEP senior dog handler) — enjoyed our last night in the field at Hurd Point, celebrating by having one last hut party. We arose at 0500 the next morning and began the 35 km trek back to station. With clear weather, we had spectacular views of the island from the plateau. It was a great way to finish a successful season, tramping down the island together as a group of five women and four dogs, laughing constantly along the way. 

Walking the length of the island in a day is no easy feat. Initially, you have a huge climb to get up off the coast onto the plateau. Plateau trekking is pretty straightforward, until you reach sections of the track like Windy Ridge, where the wind funnels up from the west coast and can often reach well over 50 knots. Dropping down into Green Gorge you get a beautiful view across the basin with the sun beaming off the escarpment. However, there are no dry feet as you squelch your way across the tarn below. The last challenge when heading north is Doctors Track, leading down into station. For tired knees, going downhill can be a real struggle, especially on this muddy, steep track. As we descended closer to hot showers, a chef prepared meal and a drink at the bar, I wondered how often throughout history had a group of five women walked the subantarctic terrain of Macquarie Island.

The first women working on Macquarie Island were biologists Susan Ingham, Isobel Bennett, Hope Mackenzie and Mary Gillham arriving on the Danish Polar vessel the Thala Dan for resupply in 1959. They were warned that on their ”behaviour rested the future of our sex with regard to ANARE voyages”. Despite this, these four pioneers set the way with women being present on most resupply voyages to Macquarie Island. However, it was not until 1976 that a woman by the name of Zoe Gardner over-wintered on Macquarie Island as the doctor on station.

Nowadays things are pretty different here with thirteen women currently working and living, filling roles as hunters in the MIPEP team, as scientists and as Bureau of Meteorology staff. However, we are still surprised at the response we get from some of the older visiting tourists, who are astonished to see so many women working on the island and even more startled to find out most of them are hunters.

Jaimie Cleeland 

When I first came to Macquarie Island as a summer scientist in 1979–80 it was still fairly unusual for women to be working and living on the island. Jeannie Ledingham had wintered as the doctor a year or so after Zoe Gardner, and was about to over-winter again in 1980, and there had been a few other female expeditioners as well. Liz Hynes was also wintering in 1980 as a radio operator, and Patricia Selkirk was summering as a scientist, and there was me. Before leaving for the island on the Nella Dan, I was surprised to get a phonecall from the Director of the Antarctic Division. “Aagh”, I thought, “What’s happened?”. However, he explained in a rather roundabout and embarrassed fashion that it was possible I might have to share a cabin with males on the voyage south, and field huts with men on the island, and could I cope? I was much relieved, although thankfully didn’t laugh. Having spent years bushwalking and sharing huts and tents with males, it was absolutely not an issue for me, and wouldn’t have been for any of my bushwalking friends. He took a bit of convincing, but thankfully finally believed me.

Yes, things have changed hugely since that time following a few years of having to endure anti-female sentiment from male expeditioners who believed women had no place down south. It seems quite incredible now. At the time, I remember thinking, Macquarie Island is the kind of environment where I feel most comfortable and at home. How on earth do I ”…not belong here”? Any woman who loved outdoor life and living in remote areas would have felt the same.

Now, women are just as actively involved in Macquarie Island expedition life as men, and this has been the case for many years. From my perspective, it is wonderful (although somewhat frustrating) to be able to show some of the older tourists visiting the island that this is the case, and that it’s quite normal — although I must admit that the group of young women hunters and scientists who I've spent this summer season with, are a particularly spectacular lot!

Jenny Scott 

Resupply is coming and the station is buzzing! With all 41 expeditioners back on station there are many preparations to be made for the L’Astrolabe, which is expected to arrive any day now.

Despite the increased workload (including cleaning, fixing, packing and more cleaning) that the trade staff has faced this week, they have still found time to help out a Macca local in need.

Earlier in the season albatross researchers Jaimie and Kate noticed a light-mantled albatross (or ‘Sooty’) had built its nest directly under the station water pipe. Over the season they monitored its health, watching the adults incubate and then coming and going, feeding its young chick. Now the chick is starting to show adult feathers and is flapping its wings in preparation for its first flight out to sea. Taking a leap into the air for the first time is fraught with danger, even more so if a water pipe is blocking your passageway to the ocean.

So on Monday, after all the necessary paperwork had been completed, Josh (the plumber), Dave (the specialist tradesman), Kris and Chris (the long and the short of the ranger team) and myself headed up Gadgets Gully to begin the clearing runway for Albatross Project. A quick planning meeting was had onsite, where different options for pipe relocation were presented. It was unanimously decided that we cut the pipe above the nest, insert a new section and divert the pipe around to the south of the bluff the nest was on. This procedure took our expert plumber only a few minutes to cut, move and join the heavy pipe, leaving the albatross runway unobstructed. A few supporting pickets were put in place to ensure the pipe would not disturb any wildlife in the future. In the sunshine we headed back down Gadgets Gully happy that the little chick had every chance to fledge successfully. 

Jaimie 

Last week the albatross team (Kate and I) headed out on our last trip of the season. It was a dash down the island to check the seven wandering albatross nests to see if the eggs had hatched. I was really excited to get back into the field again, even though we’d only planned a short trip. Leaving station for the last time, I reflected back on the last three summer seasons I've had on Macquarie collecting data for the Albatross Program and for my PhD studies. I’m definitely going to miss this island, its rugged remoteness, its wildlife and mostly its people. In true Macca form, the island tested us with some fierce weather — rain, sleet, wind, low cloud and mist. We arrived at Waterfall Bay, 22km south of the station around 4pm in the afternoon, soggy but in good spirits.

The next day we headed further south: Kate to the amphitheatre to check the six nests there and I took off to Cape Star. Cape Star is my favourite place on the whole island. The walk out there takes you past the magnificent Waterfall Lake and upon reaching the cape, you get an amazing view south into Caroline Bay and north along west coast. On my way out I always keep an eye out for burrowing petrel activity, as it is a known hotspot. I found some freshly dug burrows indicating that in fact the winter breeding grey petrels had returned and are soon to lay eggs. 

I snuck out onto the tip of Cape Star toward where our seventh wanderer nest was located. Keeping low in the grass I crawled up to the nest, moving as slowly as possible. There was a male on the nest, sitting peacefully with his head into the wind. I lay in the grass ten metres from him and begun to creep closer. As I got nearer, he sat up, adjusted his position and started preening his chest feathers. This gave me a chance to glimpse a bare little bottom sitting in the nest, indicating that the egg had hatched successfully and the chick was healthy (approximately 400g). I quickly retreated and began the walk back to Hurd Point. Seeing a new wanderer chick always gives me a huge buzz. With wandering albatross numbers so low on Macquarie, every new one counts. For the next two months, either parent will guard this little chick as they take it in turns to provision it. By the time December arrives it will weigh up to 10kgs and be ready to fledge. It is not until at least four years later that this chick will return to Macquarie Island to start learning the courting process. As I walked to Hurd and pondered the journey of the Cape Star chick it began to rain. Not your normal subantarctic light rain and mist, but rain that matched that of a tropical monsoon. I got into Hurd an hour later with the two rodent hunting girls, Ange and Leona, who I met on the track.

I was pretty excited to see the girls and chat about the day’s events. Soon enough Kate and Karen (the MIPEP senior dog handler) arrived. Kate brought news of five more newly hatched wanderer chicks and unfortunately one failed nest. So the five of us girls began preparing a feast for our last night in the field and to boost our energy stores for the 35 km walk home the next day.

Jaimie

Amongst all the marine debris washing up on the shores of Macca, there are some items that can be used again, and thus diverted away from the landfill.

It is important to remember that any marine debris used in this fashion and returned to Australia needs to abide by regulations set out by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) to be washed, cleaned and sterilised in a bleach solution.

The pink inflatable buoys that commonly wash up on the Macca shores can be used elsewhere. Greg is a 35-year member of Surf Lifesaving Tasmania — also a past president of the society — and has a great idea for their reuse. He plans to distribute them to the local Surf Lifesaving clubs around Hobart. The clubs can use the buoys for both training and work purposes.

The first photo shows Chris from TasPAWS making an honorary donation of an inflatable buoy to Greg, while both are standing on the beach at Macca.

The solid metal and plastic buoys and floats can be turned into interesting objects and art as shown in the photo selection below. All it takes is some lively imagination, and access to the Chippy’s workshop.

The coloured squid jigs have also found a new lease on life. They have been turned into whistles, while an old lifering has become the basis of a picture frame.

Clive Strauss

This weeks gallery features the Women of Macquarie Island!