ANTARCTIC RESEARCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26619, 15 November 1947, Page 7

ANTARCTIC RESEARCH

ESTABLISHMENT OF BASES AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION DEPARTS From C. R. Mentiplay, N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent. SYDNEY, Nov. 14. After months of careful preparation an Australian project to establish permanent scientific bases in Antarctica is under way. A brightly-painted tank landing ship manned by naval personnel has cleared Melbourne on the long haul south for Heard Island. This is the first step in a long-term plan which has nothing in it of the hazardous polar dashes of past years, As one member of the present expedition puts it: “An old-time expedition to-day would be about as out of date as a solo hop in a single-engined plane across the ocean—game and gallant, but completely useless.” Volunteers for this expedition expect very little except hard work and monotony in the worst of weather conditions. On the credit side of the ledger is the fact that within a few weeks the project will commence to pay its way handsomely, as far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned. The payment will not be in cash, but in precious information of coming assaults by powerful enemies lurking in weather fronts above the polar ice-caps. Isolated Outposts L.S.T. 3501 will land the party of 14, with stores and equipment sufficient for 12 monthts, on windswept Heard Island, which is 1000 miles from the Antarctic continent and approximately halfway between Australia and South Africa. One of the party will be Group Captain Stuart A. G. Campbell. R.A.A.F., who will remain until picked up later by the expedition flagship Wyatt Earp: This party will immediately set up and operate a full-size weather station. After establishing a fuel base on Kerguelen Island, the ship will return to 'Melbourne and embark a similar party for Macquarrie Island, about 1000 miles south-east of Australia and 700 miles from New Zealand. The expedition will thus have two strategically placed observation and weather stations between Australia and the Antarctic continent. , The Antarctic gives birth to many storms and pressure areas, which at present sweep unheralded across the Southern Ocean to menace shipping and air navigation. With two stations in constant contact by radio with the mainland of Australia, the courses of these disturbances can be plotted and ample warning given. Wyatt Earp’s Mission

In December the Wyatt Earp will probe farther south to establish a base on the Antarctic continent itself. This will be a permanent weather station as well as a base from which subsequent expeditions will be launched to make cosmic ray investigations, to study marine biology, and to survey the unexplored portions of the Antarctic coastline. The investigations are expected to prove of great benefit in the study of atomic and radio physics That Australia is not playing a lone hand in this important game is shown by the first purpose of the expedition, as enunciated by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr J. B. Chifley—“to maintain Australian and British interests in the Antarctic, based on Australian expeditions led by Sir Douglas Mawson, and also on the share taken by Australians in the expeditions of Scott and Shackleton.”

The Wyett Earp is the ship used by Rear-admiral Richard Byrd on his first American expedition to the Antarctic.