Category: 18–19 Season

Yesterday we had a very special guest arrive. Dr Karl from Triple J is visiting to broadcast his weekly radio segments and interview scientists at Casey station, Antarctica.

You can catch up on the Science with Dr Karl episode on the ABC website.

Resupply has been completed successfully and safely, the ship has now departed, and now it’s time to celebrate! Merry Casey Christmas everyone!

A big thank you to the chefs on station who prepared an amazing Christmas lunch for the one hundred or so expeditioners currently on station

The most hectic time at an Antarctic station is annual resupply; that one time of the year the ship arrives to change over personnel, bring down all the necessary parts, food, and fuel for an entire year, and return no longer needed equipment and rubbish back to the mainland.

This resupply my main role is to support the technical requirements of all the science projects arriving, and ensure they can connect, upload data, and keep in touch with their respective research institutions back home.

I am also on refuelling operations. The ship pumps thousands of letres of Special Antarctic Blend (SAB) diesel fuel ashore which the station will use to keep the lights on and the heat up for another year.

Due to the logistics and scheduling of Voyage 2 (V2) to Casey, it does mean each year the ship is probably in port during Christmas. We move the public holiday and festivities and observe Casey Christmas on the 28th this season.

Now that the ship is in port, probably the most important cargo is unloaded first and brought up to station – the mail! In the mailbags are postcards, online shopping, and much-awaited Christmas presents from back home.

On the weekend the weather was quite nice so we took the green hagg and a few quads out for a Sunday drive. Jacks hut is a nice spot overlooking the water, and before returning to station we popped into Wilkes, the abandoned US/Aus base on the other side of the bay.

On Wednesday we were very lucky to have 19 emperor penguins come and investigate our walking group, right near station. With cameras at the ready we were able to capture some great shots to share with the Div media team.

You can check out the video clip on Twitter or Facebook.

A “waddle” of emperor penguins marched on Australia’s Casey research station last night, delighting expeditioners and surprising resident Adelie penguins.

It’s uncommon for the largest of the penguin species to be seen near Casey station.

The posse of 19 penguins was wandering over the sea-ice near Shirley Island, when they encountered Justin Chambers, Will Turner and Brendan Barnes.

Thanks for sharing your empie experience with the world!

There are many science programs in progress this year at Casey, but one of the notable projects this season would be the Law Dome ice drilling team; a collaborative mission between US and Australian programs.

With the advance team having left the other week to head up the hill to set up camp, today 10 researchers will join them for the next three months up on the ice. They aim to drill a few hundred metres down into pre-industrial ice, for a handful of tiny molecules to fill a crucial gap in our current climate models.

How do they achieve this? Once the ice sample is drilled it will be placed in a specially built vacuum chamber and melted on site. The water will release trapped gases which can then be captured and stored for analysis in both the US and Australia.

This field ice melting unit has affectionately been called the Hot Tub Time Machine.

Speaking of naming things, what do you call the shed specifically built for the unit? If the unit is designed in America and the housing is designed in Australia, you end up calling it the (American accent) Melter (then Aussie accent) Shelta.

More information is available on the Div website news article.