Category: 20–21 Season

After a busy resupply period, it’s time to hit the road! With some access routes closed off station due to the summer melt, the J-Line to Jacks was still open, so we took the opportunity to have a quick jolly to Jacks and get off station for the weekend.

On the map, Jacks Hut is unassuming. There’s really not much around, besides the hut itself. However once you get there, it’s a beautiul vista of the Swain Group of Islands, with floating bergs off in the distance, and squawking Adelie penguin colonies to add to the scene. You can spend the whole afternoon just relaxing on the rocks, enjoying a beverage, and taking it all in.

But as always, Sunday Brunch back on station is not to be missed, so we were up at a reasonable time in the morning, heading back home for a good feed. What a wonderful way to recharge the batteries and take a moment to enjoy the incredible wilderness in this part of the world.

After a call over the radio from the ship hailing the station, the MPV Everest sailed around the corner and into Newcomb Bay, just out the front of Casey station. Hello, new ship!

Whilst Casey is quite fortunate receiving mail and food on flights at the beginning and end of the summer season, it’s always great to greet the ship for the full annual station resupply.

It’s a very busy resupply period this week, but we’re looking forward to opening the mailbag and tucking into some fresh fruit when we can!

With the ship due in the harbour for station resupply in two weeks, it’s time to continue preparations for its arrival. Today we continued IRB training including how to safely prepare, launch, operate, and pack-down the boats. It also meant we had an opportunity to have a look at the local operating area on the water, and check out some of the Antarctic wildlife we have down here.

Check out my article on Station Updates.

Happy holidays from Casey station, Antarctica.

Living here at Casey my main role is to support technology here on station. There are occasions where Wilkins aerodrome camp, a 3 hour drive up the hill, can use some onsite tech support with their equipment, so we organised a work trip to head up there and stay overnight.

Our met tech worked on the automated weather station (AWS), and I worked on some of the IT and telephony equipment.

After work this week we took a quick trip out to Robbos hut.

It’s an unusual season down here this year, and unfortunately many of our science friends are unable to be on station to continue working onsite on their studies.

One long-running program is seabird monitoring – a series of mounted cameras at verious penguin colonies. The solar-powered camera setups are programmed to open the protective lens cover, take a photo, and close the cover again, several times per day during the breeding season.

Today I was able to get out to see the penguins and maintain some of the camera setups. By uploading the imagery I’m able to assist this program in their long term studies of these seabirds.

After three years it’s time to renew Antarctic “Survival Training” – a 24 hour course designed to familiarise you with Antarctic cold weather gear, equipment, basic navigation, and of course head out into the field and look at some penguins.

This week we did Survival Training, so we got our packs together and headed off station to Shirley Island. It’s a great opportunity to see the Adelie penguins going about their day getting their nests ready.

At the end of the day in training you sit down to a dehydrated meal kit, unroll your bivvy (bivouac bag), and crawl into bed for the night. With the bright sky, cold air, and wind rustling your bivvy (affectionately called “ship packets” by Aussie expeditioners as they are made out of nylon), it’s a bit hard to get a great night’s sleep. Still an amazing Antarctic experience though!

In the morning we were packed up and headed back to station for a meal and hot shower to warm up.