Antarctic Training 5 - Fire and Emergency Response

As You can imagine it has been a very busy and hectic time leading up to our departure. The departure date has been set for Thursday 28th February, so not many days left.

As was mentioned in the post about SAR training - The crew at Macca also become the Fire and Emergency Response team (see Fire Prevention). This training took place over seven day at the Tasmanian Fire Service headquarters at Cambridge.

It was an intensive week with many theory lectures followed by hands on practical sessions.

One of the buildings at the Tasmania Fire Service training complex at Cambridge -  a house fire can  (under the right conditions) double in size every 30 seconds

Antarctic Training part 4 - Boating

The next part of our training took part in the pristine waters out of Kettering, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and the far southern parts of Storm Bay. We spent 4 day at and around the AAD's Watercraft facility at Kettering. This post will include plenty of images.

IRB's (Zodiacs) at AAD's Watercraft Facility at Kettering 

The first morning was induction and familiarisation of the the Inflatable Rubber Boats (IRB) which we will have with us at Macquarie Island.

Antarctic Training part 3 - More SAR

After returning from Bruny Island we spent the afternoon on more SAR training in the 'backyard at Kingston.

First we were shown four different tents/shelters and how to set them up. These are all available in the SAR backpacks at Macquarie Island.

Simple pyramid tent/shelter

Antarctic Training part 2 - Search and Rescue

The next part of training involved all expeditioners.

Macquarie Island lies approximately halfway between Australia and Antarctica - 1,496km south SSE of Tasmania and 1,294km north of the Antarctic Continent. It is at 54º 30' S, 158º 57' E.  This puts it right in the middle of the 'Furious Fifties', making it a very remote, windy and cold place. It is also the exposed portion of the Macquarie Ridge, which is where the Australian plate (Tectonic) meets the Pacific plate. It has steep rocky slopes near the coast.

Macquarie Island looking south showing rugged slopes and adverse weather

Antarctic Training part 1

In early January we started training at the Australian Antarctic Division in Kingston.

There are a number of things that we have to become familiar with in order to live and operate safely in a community that is confined to the remote Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean.

Map showing Macquarie Island in relation to Australia and the Antarctic continent

A Tumultuous few weeks...

Since my last post on New Years day, so much has happened.

Tasmania, in particular the south east, experienced its' worst fire day since the terrible Black Tuesday fires of 1967. On January 4th (Friday) the temperature in Hobart reached an incredible 41.8℃ (107.2℉). It was the highest temperature ever recorded in Hobart (around 130 years of records)

The day before was also hot and windy around Tasmania.  During Thursday a number of fires broke out and quickly became uncontrollable. On Friday a fire in the Forcett area moved rapidly to the southeast (towards the Tasman Peninsula) in the very hot and extremely windy conditions.  The out of control fire soon became a serious problem to the communities in its path. The following article best sums up the story of that day.

Forcett fire from top of Reserve Bank in Hobart

More Preparation.....

I joined the Bureau of Meteorology as an observer in 1982 and worked in that job until 1994, when I qualified to attend the Meteorologist (Post grad) course in 1996. Since then I have worked as a forecaster in mainly in Darwin and Hobart.

Because my Observer qualifications is somewhat dated I had to attend a intensive observer tarining course in Melbourne between late July and mid September. Participating on the course with me were Nick and Aaron, who have been contracted by the Bureau as Met Technicians at Davis and Macquarie Island. Their job is to maintain and service the Bureau's equipment at the bases as well as assist with the observation program.

Abrar, Me, Nick, Andrew (trainer) and Aaron in a training session on clouds

Also on the training course was Abrar,  from Fiji via New Zealand. He was to be my fellow observer on Macca, but due to a staff shortage he was assigned to go to Casey. He is the first Fiji born person to go to Antarctica and appeared in this Fiji Times article.