If you think the weather has been cold, spare a thought for Brad Duggan from Denman who is working in Antarctica where there is a wind chill of minus 10 degrees.
He is halfway through a six month posting supporting the work of scientists doing research.
It’s not like he didn’t know what he was getting into. Mr Duggan also worked in Antarctica in 2010.
With little respect for acclimatisation, he went straight from there to Cambodia to assist in a volunteer project renovating a school in a remote village.
After that he returned home to spend time with his fiancé Mel before donning the thermals again.
Aboard the ice breaking ship Aurora Australia with his colleagues, 860,000 litres of special Antarctic blend diesel, and 22,000 litres of water, he departed from Hobart in October 2011.
In one of his regular emails home in January, Mr Duggan wrote, “All the sea ice from out front of the station was completely blown away leaving a crystal clear blue ocean… only nine weeks ago I was driving a 25 tonne vehicle over it.
“With the ice gone it gives local wildlife a chance to come ashore. I sat in the lounge area on Monday night and watched three southern elephant seals fight, wrestle, burp and fart for about two hours as well as adele penguins run along the rocky shore line… the bird life was just as entertaining with skuas and storm petrels patrolling the water’s edge looking for washed up food.”
Mr Duggan has been building boat sheds, huts, and a climbing wall, extending a wharf, refitting an aviation building, renovating living quarters, demolishing old buildings, repairing the spa, training in casualty care and transport, crevasse rescue, searching in white out
conditions, joining the fire brigade, helping out in the kitchen and undertaking 100 kilometres, four-day hikes across the ice.
“Not much has been happening around the station other than work, which is the reason we’re here so I guess it’s a good thing,” Mr Duggan writes.
There are particular challenges working in the Antarctica. All rubbish has to be separated so it can be returned to Australia for recycling.
Elephant seals sometimes like to invade the buildings so Mr Duggan is now
experienced in building seal proof fencing.
That will be handy when he returns to Denman in April.
Email a friend