At Macquarie Island research station there are currently about 42 buildings, depending on what you count as a building and what you don’t, and most of these different buildings have different types of flooring. This can range from a floor made of the local sand to a beautifully polished Tasmanian oak floor from the 1950s. At Macca this season we’ve been taking steps to upgrade the living conditions at our oldest station (occupied since 1911, but continuously since 1948), in some instances building a building from the ground up.
Flooring is often a forgotten part of the buildings we live in but it speaks to a building’s use and its purpose. The floor of a building tells a story, it can tell you where an old renovation has taken place or what foot most people use to start to climb a set of stairs. You can see the old furniture layout by the shadows that mar the ground.
In between our buildings there are a patchwork of walkways as walking on sand is a little precarious for us precious expeditioners. So, we install fibre-reinforced plastic walkways, duck boards or even in some instances, concrete pathways.
Getting around the island is all about the tracks. We stick to the track to look after the island and to not get lost. We follow the tracks to one of the five huts (yes, they have floors too!) The floor in the orange fibreglass huts – affectionally known as “googies" – actually lift up to reveal storage for food and supplies.
Following the tracks through the mist at Macca can lead your mind to drift off. You drift off to thoughts of the journey to get to Macca, those waiting for us at home, the journey so far (so much has happened), what we have to look forward to, and the changing seasons.
Thinking with my feet: I think we look back at the path we’ve left behind to learn from where we’ve come, we look at our feet to see where we now so can we take stock firmly planted in the present, and we look to the path ahead. We can’t see exactly where it’s leading, the path is winding, but it looks bright for the future of the Macquarie Island Nature Reserve.
Ed Gault, Plumber and Appreciator of Fine Flooring
