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CASEY TOUR, PART II |
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Casey Station is composed of legoland colour block buildings, Science and Ops are yellow, the workshop is orange, the powerhouses blue, the EVS red and this is also reflected in some names such as the red shed and green store.
The Operations building contains the met office where the 3 forecasters, 2 met observers and the met tech work.
This is Australia's main antarctic weather station and the forecasters (pictured is Chris) do a long summer from September to March each year providing forecasts for the other bases and also for shipping (the AA) and flights (Quantus trips to Antarctica). The observers and the tech are part of the winter crew and stay all year. |
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They release the twice daily weather balloons, keep all the AWS working and do the daily observations (every 3h). The met office has its own bar (the ice-o-bar ) for occasional Friday drinks. The station leaders office is also found in the Ops building. This is Bob, one of the Met observers about to release one of the balloons. |
The other end of Ops is the communications centre. There are 2 communications officers ( this is Andy) who keep radio contact with field parties, other bases, flights and ships. They also keep the telephone and email systems running and look after all the transmitting and receiving antennae and satellite dishes. |
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They maintain the vital links around the Casey area and with the outside world. In addition they are the people to fix any computer problem and they keep the station video, music and projection equipment running.
The science building at Casey has 3 parts, Atmospheric & Space Physics (ASP), Glaciology and Biology. The physicists are there all year, looking at the atmosphere. The glaciologists run summer programmes and mainly use the science building as an office when they are in town. They spend their time out on traverse collecting ice samples. The cores are then transported back to Australia for analysis.
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The biology section has several labs, a wet lab (pictured), for processing samples, dry lab space for analysis and an instrument room where the chromatography systems are found. There are also facilities for water purification, autoclaves, growth facilities etc. Most of the biology occurs over summer when the animals are around and the moss exposed. Some biologists stay overwinter if they have samples to analyse or need to do measurements over winter. In the wetlab are Sabine and Sharon sorting samples. They are working on the Human impacts programme looking at the effects of heavy metals from sewage on the marine invertebrates. |
The red shed is the main living quarters, it has bedrooms (dongas) each equipped with a phone and computer outlet and bathrooms are shared usually one between 2. At one end there is the kitchen and the mess, with the wallow the main recreation area next to the mess. The wallow has a pool table, darts, bar and room for sitting, plus the climbing wall. Above the wallow and the mess are the library, the Odeon cinema, clothing store, and small video room.
At the opposite end of the red shed is the medical centre with a surgery, pharmacy, wards and immersion baths for treatment of hypothermia. The station doctor has to be able to cope with any medical problems that occur from minor ailments and dental treatment to full blown surgery procedures. A number of the winter expeditioners are trained in anaesthetics and nursing in order to help the doctor. |
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The red shed also has a brew room where the homebrew is made and stored, 'Fort Knox' where the station grog (real stuff, not the homebrew) and chocolate rations are locked away, and 'Woolies', the general store for general toiletries.
The green store is the main store on station. It has a special warm store to keep food that cannot be frozen, a freezer and cold store and huge compactus shelves for everything from engine parts to spare mattresses. |
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The gym is housed in a container which sits high up in the corner of the store. The main open area is used for unloading and packing containers and also doubles as the volleyball court. |
Next to the green store is a complex of 4 old containers which make up the field store. This used to be the science building but things have come a long way since then. Inside the field store there are rooms for sleeping bags and bivvy bags and mats, filed ration packs and cookboxes, ice climbing and rescue gear, tents and rucksacks, lamps and fuel. Most of this equipment is available to anyone of the station. The exception being the SAR room where all the stretchers and packs for emergencies are kept. |
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Opposite the field store and green store is the (Emergency vehicle shed) EVS shed (above right). Inside is the Fire Hagg (above left) and fire fighting equipment and clothes. This summer there is also a decompression chamber because of the diving programme.
The last major building on station is the workshop, there are separate chippie, plumbing, sparky and deiso areas as well as a bar / break area called the refinery, and an office area. The station tradies have to keep the station running and maintain all the vehicles throughout the year. There is a basic winter crew and then extra people come in during summer to maintain buildings, do major works and provide support to the science programmes. Here we have the Dozer Cake for Jason the Dieso's birthday party which was held in the refinery on New Years Eve. Note the exclusive dieso sized ice bucket in the background. Try get that from David Jones. |
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The workshop is also the location for spit roasts and the refinery often hosts Friday drinks or parties. It has been assembled from old oil drums and is decorated with old machinery from the station.
The ANARESAT dome is Casey's main link with the outside world allowing telephone and email with the rest of the world. Next door to the dome is Warren the incinerator, this is where the burnable rubbish is disposed of, including all the scrap food and gloves and syringes from the medical centre. The road to Warren and the ANARESAT dome is off the wharf road which turns off Casey High Street after the field store. The wharf road goes down through the site of old Casey Station past the old workshops before reaching the wharf, it is cut through several metres of snow and takes a lot of work to dig out and maintain each summer. Access is needed for boats for the diving programme and Ardery island resupply as well as for the main Station resupply.
INDEX | WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5 | WEEK 6 | WEEK 7
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Disclaimer |
| December 1997 Direct site & design comments to: Andrew Netherwood |