Friday 14th February 2014

Today was Helens birthday and yesterday we made her a happy birthday photo with my old sign and she really appreciated the thought. I had two job interviews today so I spent a couple of hours in the morning doing a bit of research and brushing up on the technical side and trying to get myself prepared.

The first one went pretty well but they caught me out on a few curly technical questions which was a little embarrassing but that's the way she goes. I have now been shortlisted with two other guys and I guess I will hear back from them next week. The second one was more of a first stage informal chat and it looks like I will have a more in-depth interview next week. After lunch I spent most of the time catching up on all my emails and also did some more work on the signs I am going to put up in all the old huts.

Thursday 13th February 2014

Today was the 60th anniversary of the first landing and establishment of Mawson station. We declared today a public holiday for all Mawsonites and we planned to celebrate with a series of events to honour those that came before us. We were planning on having a BBQ in Weddle hut and then watching some old movies in Biscoe hut. Both of these huts were the first huts erected in 1954 during the first landing.

I printed a heap of colour photos from the 1960 expedition and put them up in "exactly" the same position where they were taken. It was a fun challenge to work out the locations and an eerie feeling too as these two building have changed quite a bit over the years. When you look at these old buildings all you see are old buildings, but when you see photos of all the life, happy times and celebrations that have gone on inside them over the past sixty years they really come alive and have their own character. 

Once done setting up I went and had brunch at eleven o'clock which was a special spread of croissants and smoked salmon. At eleven thirty I had arranged to have a conference call with Syd Kirkby and George Cresswell who were fellow expeditioners with my step father Bill Kellas here at Mawson in 1960. Syd has had an incredible career as a surveyor and holds the honour of exploring and surveying more Australian territory than any other explorer including Burke & Wills or Charles Sturt. 

George is an honorary research fellow at CSIRO and was an Auroral Physicist here at Mawson. He has had an amazing 4 decade career as a physical oceanographer working in Australia and SE Asian water. George also has the honour of bringing the first motor bike to Antarctica. Both Syd and George are very funny and witty men and true gentlemen. 

Our phone call lasted over an hour and they had everyone captivated with funny stories and anecdotes about early station life. Chairing the call was fun and I managed to dig up some dirt about each of them and we all had a fabulous time. We the 66th ANARE were honoured to have two such great and inspirational expeditions join us for the 60th anniversary of Mawson station. 

After the call I went down to the old station to fulfil a promise I made when I first got here to clean out all the old buildings. The three original remaining accommodation buildings Shackleton, Wilkins and Dovers all looked like squatters have been living in them and I spent six hours thoroughly cleaning them out and they now look fantastic. I have also made up signs to place in them telling the name, the building use, age and a note about them being heritage and to look after them. 

I took some time out as we all gathered out on the end of West Arm to unveil the new Mawson sign Terry had made up to replace the aging and faded old sigh. We all raised a cup of champagne and toasted those that came before us and also our family, friends and loved one left behind. Late in the afternoon we all gathered in Weddle for a BBQ and a few drinks and afterwards we all moved into Biscoe where I played a few old movies including "Blue Ice" about the original landing at Mawson in 1954, a movie of the 1960 expedition, Harry Munstermann's narrative slide show from the 1960 expedition and a slide presentation by Dave McCormack. 

It was a nice day and worked well and later everybody gathered in Klub Katabatic for a few beers, darts, pool and movies.

Wednesday 12th February 2014

This morning I once again worked on the telecoms handover documents for several hours which also led into cleaning up the file server. After smoko I went and got a spare TV out of the green store and set it up in Biscoe hut in readiness for the 60th celebrations tomorrow.

Back in the office I gave the telecoms handover documents a rest and went on with the annual report for a while. Late in the afternoon I made some preparations for tomorrow's teleconference with Syd & George who were Mawson expeditioners with Bill my step father in 1960.

Horse shoe harbour sea ice refreezing

Tuesday 11th February 2014

Well today was a pretty uneventful day once again. I am trying to get all my tasks completed before the ship or helicopter arrives whenever that might be. It could be any day now so I want to be prepared and not caught out. First thing I did was track down a box large enough to fit my ice axe and tripod and then I packed these away into the UPE container. Next job was to complete a Fire Chief handover document and induction document. Once that was complete I went and did the geo-magnetic observations for this week. I am getting very good at it now and can do it pretty fast but it still takes about two hours and is quite tedious.

• First I have to take 8 snapshot recordings with the fixed magnetometer. 
• Then I take two readings with the theodolite on a fixed trigonometry mark, one with the magnetometer facing up and another with the  magnetometer facing down.
• Then I take two readings with the theodolite at nulled at North, one with the magnetometer facing up and another with the magnetometer facing down, and then I take eight snapshots of the magnetic variation.
• Then I take two readings with the theodolite at nulled at South, one with the magnetometer facing up and another with the magnetometer facing down, and then I take eight snapshots of the magnetic variation.
• Then I take two readings with the theodolite on a fixed trigonometry mark, one with the magnetometer facing up and another with the  magnetometer facing down.
• Then I take two readings with the theodolite at nulled at East, one with the magnetometer facing up and another with the magnetometer facing down, and then I take eight snapshots of the magnetic variation.
• Then I take two readings with the theodolite at nulled at West, one with the magnetometer facing up and another with the magnetometer facing down, and then I take eight snapshots of the magnetic variation.
• Then I take two readings with the theodolite on a fixed trigonometry mark, one with the magnetometer facing up and another with the magnetometer facing down.
• Then I do the whole lot again in reverse order.

As you can see there are a lot of very accurate readings to be taken and if you mess one up or breathe on the theodolite you mess the whole lot up and you have to start all over again. With that out of the way for this week I went back to the office to make a start on my annual report which when finished is going to be about eighty or so pages long.

Here are some reminders of the thirty seven years of the use of dogs at Mawson. The last of the Husky's were removed in 1993 to comply with the Antarctic Treaty.

Monday 10th February 2014

Today was a public holiday in Hobart for Regatta day so we had the day off but the sad thing was some of us weren't told about it and I only found out about it just before lunch. In the morning I worked on my annual report and also did the ARPANSA filter change. At lunchtime there wasn't a skerrick of food to be found and I was craving some spicy food so I whipped up a couple of bowls of super spicy fried rice. It was really delicious and I saved the second bowl for dinner.

After lunch I went back to the office to sort a few more things out and then I went down to the transmitter building to check out the conditions on air. Conditions were very poor due to a large magnetic storm. I managed to make a few call and then I got a phone call from Luc to say he was putting on a few documentaries in the cinema if I wanted to come along. Keeping in with the spirit of Regatta day I cracked a bottle of champagne and got settled into a movie matinee.

Where the sea ice had degraded or melted out has now re-frozen to a depth of around thirty centimetres and the ice is already rafting up on the shore line.

Sunday 9th February 2014

Once again, no sleeping in due to having to do ARPANSA filter change. It was a pretty crappy sort of day today with minus five and blowing 30 knots. The temperature has been getting down to minus eight over the last few nights and the sea is refreezing and is now about fifty millimetres thick in the places that broken out, too thick to smash through with the biggest rock I could lift.

Late in the afternoon I walked down to the transmitter building and spoke to a few people on the radio, mostly from Australia and Japan, but also with a bloke in Finland. So far I have worked over two thousand stations from over one hundred and thirty different countries. Later, after a toasted sandwich for dinner we watched Coast and then a couple of documentaries.

Locations of stations I have contacted via ham radio

Saturday 8th February 2014

No sleep in today as I had to get up to do ARPANSA. After lunch Paul and I did the gash run and after this it was such beautiful weather I went for a long walk in the sun. I dropped into the transmitter building to see what conditions were like on the radio but I was very tired and had to go back to the red shed and have a nanny nap for a couple of hours. On the way back to the red shed there was a really good solar corona which are quite common down here. After dinner I watched a movie and a few documentaries before going to bed.