This will be the final Station Update from myself and the Mawson 75th ANARE crew. Our handover is almost complete and we will soon be obsolete. The new team, led by Cat Humphries, have been fabulous and are now so, so, close to being ready to take over the station. Twenty-four more hours and handover will be complete and it will be theirs. We wish them all the best in their endeavours. May their year be as positive and productive as ours has been.
I couldn’t go this last time before writing one final love letter to Mawson. For those who may have read any of the previous Mawson Station Updates of this past year, I imagine you will have picked up on our love of the place. It is a truly spectacular and special location, and it has been an incredible privilege to call Mawson our home for the past 357 days.
Mawson will always have a special place in our hearts. We’ve forever been changed by the experience of living and working amongst the Framnes Mountains up on the ice plateau and out on the sea ice amid the local islands and icebergs of this small portion of East Antarctica. If you see us back at home suddenly stop mid-sentence with our eyes glazed over as we stare off into the distance we’re likely back on the ice with our Mawson family. We’re remembering the view out over East Bay from the windows of the Red Shed, of the ice cliffs with the plateau up above lit by the setting sun; or listening for the hum of the power house or the distant squawk of the penguins; or watching for the green lights of the Aurora drifting across the sky. Or, we might pause as we enter a room of people, hoping that when we turn the corner it will be to arrive in the mess where we’ll see the 13 familiar faces that we’ve come to know so well over these past months of enforced closeness.
What a wonderful bunch of people to have shared such an experience with. It has truly been an honour and privilege to lead them through this past year and I thank them all from the bottom of my heart for their hard work, trust, resilience, sense of adventure, laughter, and friendship.
In recognition of our namesake, Sir Douglas Mawson, I been contemplating his prose which seems so appropriate for our departure and what, I am predicting, will be a little homesickness that we will feel in the months to come:
… if perchance you hear the silence calling…
You may recall that sweep of savage splendour
That land that measures which man at his worth
And feel in memory, half fierce, half tender
That brotherhood of men that know the South
As we the Mawson 75th ANARE prepare to depart, it’s comforting to think that we’re now part of that brotherhood of people that know the South and we will look back on our time here with fondness, and some longing, in the years to come.
Bec J (Mawson SL Rtd.)
(Some favourite photos from the year for your enjoyment)
