Features

Sergeant joins the ice pack

Emperor Penquins with their chicks at the Amanda Bay rookery.

Going with the floe ... Sergeant Ralph Botting on the ice edge near the spectacular Sorsdal Glacier.

Preparing a “patient” for descent down a slope during search-and-rescue/survival training at Platcher Ridge.

From palm trees to the big freeze – that has been the experience of an Air Force reservist, as Ben Caddaye reports

THE frozen plateaus of Antarctica are a long way from the tropics of Townsville – just ask Sergeant Ralph Botting, of No. 27 Squadron.

SGT Botting swapped sunshine and 30-degrees heat for 12 months of extreme cold, icy winds and snow, joining the 55th Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (ANARE) to Antarctica last year.

Twenty-four-hour darkness, 12m waves, temperatures as low as -30 degrees and a 70-knot blizzard were just some of the hardships SGT Botting had to deal with while based at Davis Station, the southernmost Australian Antarctic Station.

Not surprisingly, he said it was an experience he would never forget.

“It’s a fantastic place. To stand there and look out across the ice and know that there’s nothing between you and the South Pole is pretty amazing,” he said.

Eighteen months ago, he answered a positions vacant advertisement for a Communications Telecommunications Officer (CTO) with the Australian Antarctic Division.

An Advanced Avionics Technician with 13 years’ experience in the permanent Air Force and eight with 27SQN, SGT Botting was selected and, months later, found himself aboard the Polar Bird on an 11-day journey to Davis Station, Antarctica.

This was to be home for 21 people of various trades who were required to keep the station operating over the winter months, make repairs and upgrades ready for the arrival of the summer scientists in October.

On arrival, SGT Botting, being a Queenslander, had to acclimatise himself to some of the conditions he was likely to face on a regular basis in such harsh, unforgiving territory.
Sleeping out on a ridge in a Bivvy bag in a temperature of -5 degrees and 20-knot winds which whipped up snow was a necessary but uncomfortable introduction to typical Antarctic conditions.

“It was a bit of a shock. I didn’t get much sleep that night I must admit,” he said.

SGT Botting’s position as a CTO was to maintain the communications on the station and in the remote field locations. This included administering and maintaining the station computer network, telephone system and satellite link to Australia, servicing and repairing HF and VHF radios fitted to the field huts and vehicles, monitoring the radios and making scheduled calls when parties were out in the field.

There was also a scheduled works program for updating the communication cabling and equipment.

It wasn’t all work, though, as he and his colleagues had the opportunity to view some of the incredible scenery and wildlife. Once the sea ice froze to a safe thickness (above 750mm), trips on weekends to field huts scattered around the hills became possible.
Venturing out on either a quad – a four-wheel bike that could go just about anywhere – or a Hagglund snow-track vehicle, the team spent many evenings riding around icebergs and spying penguins and seals.

The highlight of the trip for SGT Botting was taking part in a traverse on to the ice plateau, crossing the Sorsdal Glacier and venturing on to the sea ice to the Raur group of islands. This trip, taking three weeks, was to set up a base camp with food supplies and radios, for a group of geologists arriving in the summer.

The party travelled down the coast and visited the nearby Emperor Penguin rookery at Amanda Bay, where they took photos and sat in awe watching around 1000 Penguins with their chicks.

As winter progressed, the days become shorter until in early June the sun didn’t rise at all. For nearly two months, there was between one and two hours of twilight around midday.

“This period can be difficult. Coping with 24-hour darkness is not something you can be trained for,” SGT Botting said.
A positive side to the longer nights arrived in the form of glistening auroras racing across the skies.

In late July the sun started to make brief appearances above the horizon. The days then got longer until there was 24-hour daylight during summer.

In mid-October the first ship of the season, the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Klebnikov, arrived with 42 new faces for Davis, made up of summer scientists and tradespeople for the summer building projects.

The winter crew were keen to become involved in the scientific research and spent many days out in the field assisting the scientists and acting as guides.

In December the research ship Aurora Australis arrived at Davis delivering the new winter crew, resupplying the station for the next season and picking up SGT Botting and his colleagues.

It then sailed on to change over the winter crew for Mawson and in late December took the two groups home.
“It was an amazing experience,” SGT Botting said. “I would consider going back there one day for sure.”