Going South

 

Barbara Smith

 

This is probably one of the last summer seasons when the Australian Antarctic program uses ships for all personnel and cargo transport to the continental stations of Casey, Davis and Mawson. In the summer of 2005 a new air transport link from Hobart to Casey should be inaugurated. This will consist of a Falcon jet, and an intra-continental link with two CASA 212 aircraft next season. This new air transport system will be phased in over the following years and will inevitably change the nature of operations and the science programs of the AAD. For 56 years the AAD has maintained three year-round stations on the Antarctic continent and one on Macquarie Island, with occasional bases on Heard Island, and other continental sites. The main transport system has been a series of ice-breakers or ice-strengthened vessels, which can take a minimum of a week to travel between Hobart and Casey, and up to three weeks between Hobart and Mawson. Invariably the numerous voyages each summer take at least six weeks to complete with resupply stopovers of a few days at one or more stations. On some trips it can take six weeks or more for expeditioners to arrive at their stations either because the ship has been engaged in marine science surveys on the way south, or has been beset in sea ice and has had to wait until the ice conditions changed to get underway. The trip from Hobart to Casey on the Falcon jet will take less than 5 hours!

 

The long trips south and the problem for many of sea-sickness have to date put many researchers off the idea of spending time in Antarctica. Once we start the air link, someone doing a week’s field work need only spend just over a week away from home. At present they would probably need to spend at least 2 or 3 months away, especially with travel time being unproductive (try finding a quiet space to work on a full ship that is rolling around in the Southern Ocean!). The vast difference the air transport link will make on time away from home should have a huge impact on the number of people attracted to Antarctic research. For example, many people with a family are, understandably, reluctant to spend several months away from home, particularly those with small children. Mothers, in particular, are not likely to be in a position where they can leave for several months at a time. There are certainly families that do cope with this separation, but it is not common. The air transport link can therefore make Antarctic field work far more accessible and attractive to female scientists.

 

Women in the Australian Antarctic program have been going south since the early eighties, but our numbers are still very low. During summer the stations can have up to 100 people, of whom only 10 or so may be women. Of these women, most of them will be scientists, and most of those will be biologists, but interestingly enough, most of them will also be in junior research positions. Slowly there is an increasing number of tradeswomen going south, but there is still a very long way to go! During winters it is still common to have one woman or none on stations of about 24 people. Perhaps the air link will help to improve the ratios.

 

 

 

 

 

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