Melting Moments In Land Of Cold Reality

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday November 8, 2008

A 12-MONTH stay in the Antarctic has ended in dramatic circumstances for a team of Australian expeditioners.

The Australians, attached to the Mawson and Davis stations, spent days using heavy machinery to carve a 3000m airstrip on the ice so a United States Air Force 59-tonne C130 Hercules could land to fly a seriously ill chef back to Australia.

Dwayne Rooke, 31, of Tasmania, was flown to Hobart on Thursday. He suffered multiple fractures in a quad bike accident almost three weeks ago.

The Mawson Station team is awaiting the arrival of the ice-breaker Voyage 2 to take them back to Australia.

It will be a bitter-sweet moment for the team, led by station manager Narelle Campbell, who has contributed a series of articles to the Mercury's Weekender magazine during their stay.

The team has been involved in vital research work, including working closely with biologists Dr Gary Miller and Dr Robyn Mundy in monitoring thousands of emperor penguins at Auster Rookery, about 60km from Mawson base.

But it hasn't been all work and no play for the intrepid expeditioners - they've celebrated a 40th birthday, a buck's day, played AFL and rugby league to celebrate the grand finals of both codes, participated in the annual Mawson ironman classic and taken on their friends from Macquarie Island in a darts tournament.

Narelle Campbell's final postcard from the Antarctic appears in today's Weekender.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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