As I jumped from the Zodiac and clambered up the snowdrift overhang of the western tip of Clark Peninsula an eerie feeling over came me. ‘Twas the very spot from where Wally used to catch the bar chompers, those tiny cod like fish so sweet and appetizing with a home brew before the evening repast.
I had just stepped ashore into Wilkes 1965 like it was yesterday. The eerie-ness subsided to a warm and familiar ambience of the past. We ‘man-hauled’ our tiny sledge of goodies up passed the “new” balloon shed. As I recall, Torch was alleged to have burned the Yank one down in ’63. Torch was Met OiC again in ’65, wonder where he got that name? A kilometre or so on to the old radio transmitter hut, now the “Wilkes Hilton”, and all seems in order. Not much appears to have changed at all. The main station buildings are still in that reddish orange colour with their flat tar covered roofs protruding a foot or three above the snow. The balloon-shed doors are a little askew and the filling hut is half full of ice. The Auroral Tower has disappeared from the skyline and the radio mast next to the Radio/Met building has a little bit of a kink in it. All in all not too bad for an Antarctic research station constructed by the Americans over a few weeks in 1957 to serve around 24 or so scientists and maintenance people for just two years of the IGY. “Loaned” to the Australians in 1959 and totally abandoned 10 years later in ’69, Wilkes well represents a significant time in Antarctic History. Apparently three years ago the whole station was totally buried with a metre or more of drift snow above the rooftops. Now, due to good melts these past two summers, from a distance, Wilkes appears just as it did during the winter of ’65. I can hardly bear to wait until the morrow for a good reconnoitre and assurances that I’m not dreaming. Will all the buildings be filled with ice? Is there a piano in the Rec. room visible from the skylight through the ice?
What a
fantastic and evocative experience this is.
It came about rather abruptly when in late October I was promoted from
‘Back Up’ to ANARE Club representative on Polar Bird for V 3, the
resupply and change over of Casey 2002-2003.
Thanks to the expeditious organizing of the formalities by Angela Doyle
and Jenny Whittaker of the AAD, the paper work was completed by December 9th
and we sailed from Hobart on the evening of December 17th.
Both the weather and the seas were very kind to us and Polar Bird travelled well at about 12 knots on 75-80% power. She was well laden with supplies and quite stable in the slight to moderate seas. A Met man (again!), Bruce Alden, won the stash of cash for correctly predicting the exact time of sighting of the first iceberg, about three days out from Casey. On the 24 and 25 we encountered some light pack ice, occasionally slowing down to 4 knots in about 8 tenths pack. There was quite a lot of low cloud, fog and mist. Christmas “Dinner” commenced down in a hold with a bar-b-q including great quantities of the largest king prawns and a pig roasted on a spit. The second session was up in the crews’ mess. A superb spread including crayfish, more prawns, cold cuts, fresh fruit, cheeses, Christmas cake and pastries etc. Fortunately Christmas “night” was sunny and just after midnight we had a most magnificent sunset. A bonus for those who stayed up to see if the mist lifted was an even more fantastic sunrise about half an hour later.
During the 9-day, 2006 nautical mile voyage from Hobart to Casey we were well trained and entertained. Chief Officer Dag Hareide took us through full immersion suit and lifeboat drills. John Burgess, one of AAD’s’ field training officers was excellent with his field and safety equipment sessions. Polar B’s Master, Capt. Sigvald Brandal and his officers were great, allowing access to the bridge throughout the trip and what a top spot to observe much wild life, particularly going through pack ice. Eric Woehler, ornithologist (IASOS) was always up there and many of us enjoyed helping him and learning to identify the species of birds, seals and whales sighted. Evening talks with slides etc. were very good. These included George Blaisdell on the construction and site selection of ice/snow runways. Kim Pitt elaborated on and updated us on the Casey airfield project. Kim also spoke on the use of the Falcon 900b and Casa 212 aircraft for Australian Antarctic work. (See Aurora, June 2002). Ian Godfrey, conservator WA Museum, spoke on his ablation program with the Wilkes Sferics Hut and his work with the team on the preservation of Mawson’s Hut. Luka Vanzino showed his excellent slides of Heard Island and Big Ben belching a bit of smoke.
ANU history fellow, Tom Griffiths, presented a most enlightening oration on ‘the first women in Antarctica’. Hopefully Tom, now a member of the Club, will submit his oration for a future edition of Aurora so that we may all enjoy it
Thursday 26 December presented with a fine calm sunny morning and the mercury at 2deg. C as we approached the Windmill Islands from the Northwest. Straight toward Wilkes we went with the bow lined up on the yellow Radome, the orange balloon shed a point or two off to port. At this point Casey seemed obscured by McMullin and Shirley islands. Then we saw first the Red shed, the Green shed and the Blue powerhouse. The new Casey, is a sight to see. People were waving from the veranda of the red living quarters and mess. As Polar Bird dropped her anchor half a mile off, three Zodiacs came ‘skiing’ out across the still sunlit waters of Brown Bay. Looking ashore on this beautiful day I reflected on the many hours of three previous changeovers for Wilkes when we had labored on Cobra rock drills, helping carve out the Warf and the foundations for REPSTAT. Replacement Station that is, the original Casey removed and RTA’d back in ‘93.
"Snowed In" photo by the author
The weather remained fine and resupply and changeover took place in record time. 640 thousand litres of fuel was pumped ashore in about 24 hours. It was interesting to note in the old 1965 Wilkes station log book, August 20th, “…refueled the station, 80drums pumped into the tank farm in the morning and another 80 drums after lunch….” (That was 32000 litres). In those days all the Fuel for Wilkes was in 44-gallon drums and brought ashore by army DUKWS during the summer change over.
John Rich and his outgoing wintering party were so terrific. Even in the sometimes-hectic long hours of changeover and battling all night in the Zodiacs against cantankerous ice flows trying to disrupt the bulk fuel pumping by stretching the hose and crews to greater limits. After little or no sleep they spent much of their own time proudly showing us over Casey and all that it has to offer. It was so obvious from their high spirits, attitudes and the fine condition of the Station that all must have had an enjoyable and successful year. The catering by the Casey mess during the great invasion of troops was just tops with a 24-hour smile.
During the 5 days of changeover we all helped with packing stores away, slushy etc and were rewarded with VIP treatment and guided tours. I was very fortunate to spend several days over at Wilkes with the Western Australian Museum building preservation party and that will be the basis of my next article for the June Club Journal.
The evening of the 30th saw a change over party equal to the best. Next morning was the official change over of Casey to the new team, quite emotional with a smarting eye or two. After that fond farewell we upped anchor at 1330 and with more fine weather and slight following seas made the increased 2011 nautical miles back to Hobart in another record of just under 8 days. Good fellowship and fine sailing was enjoyed by all including New Years Eve which saw Senator Cook from WA star in the Karioki.
This episode would not be complete without sincerely thanking Dr Press and the AAD for making this opportunity for the other supernumeraries and me possible. Similarly we are very grateful to the AAD staff on the voyage and at Kingston, who all went well out of their way, sparing no effort in the midst of their busy duties to maximize all the opportunities afforded us. The hospitality and service from Captain Brandal and his Polar Bird crew was superb.
TO BE CONTINUED………………………. Mark Forecast.