Adapt, rebuild, evolve
It is October the 9th and we are making final preparations to leave Macquarie Island. It has now been 45 days since the decision was made to withdraw. The past 45 days has been anything but withdrawal for our team here as well as our home-based teams who have been working as one to support the staged hibernation of this quirky little wooden station which has been operating since 1948. The first ANARE party arrived and set up the station on the island's northern isthmus, creating what became Australia's first permanent sub-Antarctic research station.
I’m looking out my office window toward Garden Cove. There’s a gentoo penguin walking toward me. He’s checking out a nice little spot to make a nest - wait, I think he’s decided on a spot - just at the base of the stairs leading into the building. Hmm. This 'was' to be the site for a temporary solar array to power equipment for remote monitoring in our absence.
Such is life at Macca. We bend the knee to Mother Nature rather than forcing it to bend its knee to us! It’s actually what attracts us to Macca and binds us ‘Macca folk’ together - the love we all share for wild nature. That's the reason we are here! In a recent meeting, one of our team members used the term 'custodians' to describe our relationship with this place. It struck a chord with many of us. Living and working on Macquarie Island has a way of changing your perspective. Over time, you come to realise that while we may occupy a place for a season, the place itself endures and, in many ways, shapes those who pass through it.
We have all come to appreciate just how deeply people can connect to a landscape, giving many of us a small insight into the profound and enduring relationship First Australians have, and have always had, with Country.
My new penguin friend has just been joined by his penguin friend. They are both now busily collecting tussock grass and piling it purposefully into small stokes for what I reckon is the beginning of a nest! They seem to be looking for a slice of paradise away from the madding crowds on the beach. The weather has moved in, blowing 40 knots from the west through our little village as it has done since the beginning of time (Macca time) 9-12 Million Years! Here the exchange between ourselves and mother nature is instant and direct - as is the love and appreciation we feel for it.
I won’t pretend our island community did not have a strong emotional response to the news of our withdrawal - but from my unique vantage point, I can say without doubt, that decision makers and decision takers were all affected at a very human level. This we share together.
My penguin friends have just turned heel and begun their waddle back to the beach - the sharp edges of the wooden stairs proving a distant second choice to the relative warmth and comfort of the beachside tussocks for now. Maybe they like the safety of the crowd after all. All the same I get the feeling they’ll be back - maybe before we leave - maybe after, who knows!
No-one knows how H5 bird flu will affect the island and its wildlife. We will see the story unfold in real time through cameras from our home bases across Australia. What I do know is Mother Nature will do its best to adapt, rebuild and evolve and so must we in our continuing stewardship of this amazing place. Maybe that’s what my new gentoo friends were trying to say!
Brett Barlee,
Station Leader 79th ANARE
