Tales of an Extended Season
Tales of an Extended Season
Home has been a moving target for a while now.
An apartment in Hobart during training. Casey Station through an Antarctic winter. And for the past three months, Macquarie Island. The last time I actually saw my house was in 2024.
In a couple of weeks, I’ll hit a milestone of 500 days deployed as part of the 78th ANARE.
Originally, I applied for a summer job. Then I was asked how I felt about wintering at Casey. It didn’t take long to decide. You can see Antarctica in summer from a cruise ship, but winter is something very few people ever experience. The chance to be part of a small team living and working in such a remote environment was too good to pass up.
What I expected to be a four-month deployment quickly became more than a year. Wintering at Casey proved to be everything I’d hoped for — challenging, rewarding, and unforgettable. Living with a small team in such an isolated and extreme environment creates experiences, and friendships, that are hard to match anywhere else.
While at Casey I kept hearing about a remarkable place called “Macca.” The stories from other expeditioners made it sound almost mythical. Eventually I decided that if even half of them were true, I wanted to see it for myself. So I applied for another season, hoping I might get the chance.
Then, about a month before I was due to leave Casey and finally head home, I was asked if I would consider spending the summer at Macquarie Island. They needed someone with my skill set at short notice.
It was an incredible opportunity — but by then I’d already been away for more than a year. I was looking forward to sitting on a beach with my wife Donna and our dog. When we talked it through, Donna didn’t hesitate. She encouraged me to take the opportunity straight away. She’s an amazing person.
So after fifteen months away, I flew from Casey to Hobart to spend two weeks with Donna before boarding L’Astrolabe for Macquarie Island and another five months in the field. With only two weeks together we decided not to return home to South Australia — we didn’t want to spend two of those days travelling.
Unfortunately it wasn’t practical to bring our dog River to Hobart, so she’ll have to wait a little longer to see me. Donna gave her a few of my old T-shirts to sleep on in the meantime.
Macquarie Island is extraordinary. I’ve never seen so much wildlife — at times it feels like living inside a David Attenborough documentary. There’s nothing ordinary about a workday here. Sometimes it’s stepping around a massive elephant seal or weaving around a crowd of king penguins just to reach the office. Other days it’s a 35-kilometre walk carrying tools and spare parts to repair a remote radio repeater.
Like any Antarctic station, those of us in Communications can end up fixing almost anything electronic. One day it might be a repeater, the next a tide gauge or magnetic observation equipment, or simply helping another expeditioner resurrect a laptop.
I’ve always considered myself fairly active. At Casey I rode bikes or skied whenever I could, and I was always keen to volunteer for jobs that involved a long walk. I thought I was reasonably fit.
My first field job at Macca quickly challenged that idea. Between the steep terrain, rough tracks, and carrying every tool and spare part you might need, the island has a way of testing your limits. After plenty of training, I can now comfortably walk to any of the huts on the island carrying the equipment needed to service remote instruments.
Those of us on station are lucky to experience places like this. But none of it would be possible without the support of the people back home. Family and friends are an essential part of every Antarctic season, even if they’re thousands of kilometres away.
To all of our families — thank you.
And to Donna: happy 15th anniversary on the 1st. I’ll try to be home for the next one.
Terry Trewern
Senior Communications Technical Officer
