When the French ship L’Astrolabe departs Hobart for Macquarie Island later today I won’t be aboard. The passenger capacity of the ship is only enough for essential logistical operations (like refuelling and provisioning the research station) and personnel changeover. The Read More …
The Aurora Australis recently arrived back in Australia and is currently in Fremantle for repairs to the hull which was damaged when the ship ran aground in Antarctica last month. Meanwhile, alternative plans for the season’s fourth and final Australian Read More …
In Antarctic slang it’s called the “A-factor”. Experienced expeditioners will tell you that things rarely go according to plan in the Antarctic and Subantarctic. It is wise to expect the unexpected and to have a string of contingency plans. If Read More …
In April 2015 the short grasslands of Macquarie Island are at the end of their summer growing season. The plants are the tallest they have been for years, probably for many decades. There is virtually no bare ground visible as Read More …
Walking is getting harder on Macquarie Island. Previously short-cropped grass only centimetres tall is now a knee-deep meadow of grass matted with mosses and herbs. This is one of the initial observations from last week’s field trip to the Subantarctic Read More …
Just arrived back at the station via helicopter. Unfortunately we lost about half of our planned fieldwork time: operations on the island are winding up early due to forecast bad weather, and earlier in the week we had two days Read More …
We landed on Macquarie Island yesterday and spent a few hours setting up and testing an automatic weather station. Now it is ready to be airlifted to over 300 m elevation on the plateau, ready for installation. We’ll find out Read More …
How much has the vegetation changed in the past two years? We’ll soon see. Finally it’s time to do some field work. The Aurora Australis is loaded up and heading south. In 3 days time we will be at Macquarie Read More …