Late news from March plus ANZAC day 26th April.

This shows ANZAC Day dawn service Casey. As you can see we had a bit of wind to contend with. I can tell you that you get very cold in these conditions during the minite of silence.

On a lighter not, I found a way to keep the boss quiet. This is the station leader after coming in from the blizzard on ANZAC Day.

By the time you open this page, Casey will have said goodbye to all of our summer expeditioners and will be into the start of the winter season. With only 19 males now left on Station, the ‘Men of Casey’ team will……..

The month of March has been no different to the other summer months with plenty of activity and events taking place in the lead-up to the arrival and departure of the last ship for the season until next November. There was a flurry of activity in order to finish the various projects slated to be completed by the end of summer.


One event at Casey this month even made it back to the mainland newspapers. The event in question was the first ever Wilkins runway to Casey ski marathon. Air ground support officer Tricky Taylor and volunteer summer scientist Lisa Perret after training for much of the summer embarked on the titanic 70km journey in the early hours of Friday the 16th.

This event all in the name of charity had the pair upright and moving for over 15 hours and finally crossing the finish line in full darkness at 10:30pm. Almost the entire station stood waiting at the finish line outside the Red Shed to cheer and congratulate them on their achievement.
At this point it appears that the pair managed to raise somewhere in the realms 8 to 10 thousand dollars for Camp Quality, which is quite simply an amazing effort. Thanks must go to those at Casey, the other Antarctic bases as well as folks back on the mainland who contributed their hard earned to what is simply a great cause.
Special thanks also to Gary Skeggs, Kate Ferguson and Stephen Wall, who were the support crew for the event and were with Tricky and Lisa every step of the way.

The first Aurora for 2007 visible from Casey station appeared as if by fate approximately 1 hour before the Wilkins skiers crossed the finish line. It was first noticed around 9:30pm and lasted in one form or another for the next couple of hours. To the naked eye it appeared as a faint whitish glow to the far north of the station and would often intensify to an emerald green colour with the occasional flash of red or yellow. Many of the stations budding photographers were on site to catch the moment and so the road in front of the Red Shed was speckled with tripods as time-lapse shots were taken. The photo’s taken with time lapse managed to intensify the colours of the Aurora resulting in the beautiful photos seen here.

The month of March featured a number of blizzards with most notable being on the 29th.

Most folk at Casey awoke to winds gusting into the high 80 knot range and many were in the mess to witness the highest gust of the day of 97 knots at around 8am. Outside work was abandoned with supervisors finding inside work for their troops.
There was a brief lull in the winds mid afternoon where average speeds dropped to a relatively sedate 59 knots. However, this did not last long and the winds were soon back to blowing in the high 60’s low 70’s and gusting into the 80 knot range.
As is often the way at Casey, the next morning saw light winds and falling snow in complete contrast to the weather of the previous 24 hours.


It’s been a busy and enjoyable time at Casey and so until the next edition, goodbye to all family, friends and colleagues.