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Antarctic mission for USC academic
A University of the Sunshine Coast academic will trace the polar expeditions of those who went 100 years before him when he departs Tasmania tomorrow (2 December) bound for Antarctica.
USC Lecturer in Science and Engineering Adrian McCallum will leave Hobart on Australia’s Antarctic flagship, Aurora Australis, amid celebrations commemorating the centenary of Australia’s inaugural Antarctic expedition led by Sir Douglas Mawson.
Mr McCallum said his voyage to Casey Station on the Antarctic mainland to conduct a scoping study into alternative road options was made even more significant by the timing.
“This celebration is a great thing to be a part of,” he said. “When we depart, the ship will be participating in the 100-year anniversary flotilla so it will be pretty spectacular with Hobart Harbour awash with steam and sail.”
Mr McCallum will carry out the work for the Australian Government’s Antarctic research arm, the Antarctic Division, over the next few months.
“I will be assessing the viability of the existing seasonally constructed gravel road from the Casey Station down to the wharf, which is currently problematic,” he said.
“Every season, the gravel on the road tends to disappear because it migrates into the surrounding sea water amidst significant melt.
“I will be looking at other options that will allow us to resupply the station on an annual basis, including different types of roads or road alignments.”
Mr McCallum said he would draw on the polar skills and knowledge he’d obtained during his PhD research into snow strength in the Arctic and Antarctica, and remained unfazed about the cold climatic conditions he was soon to experience.
“After enduring minus 50 degrees during an overland ski-traverse of the Arctic Ocean in March, temperatures hovering around zero at Casey will be downright warm,” he said.
Mr McCallum said studying glaciology in Antarctica while based at a university in sub-tropical Queensland, was not as abstract a notion as some may think.
“There are glaciers in New Zealand and West Papua in Indonesia, and USC has an International Projects Group which conducts research with our northern neighbours,” he said.
“So it fits nicely in working out how changes in glaciers in Indonesia may affect the hydrology of the area, and ultimately impact highland communities.”
— Michelle Widdicombe