Davis Station is a permanent
base in Antarctica
managed by the Australian Antarctic Division
(AAD). It is the busiest Australian scientific research
station. Davis Station is located at in
Princess Elizabeth Land in a
remarkable ice free area of Antarctica known as the
Vestfold Hills.
History
The first recorded sighting of the coastline now occupied by Davis
Station was on 9 February 1931, during the second
British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research
Expedition (BANZARE) voyage aboard
Discovery. Sir
Douglas Mawson and Flight Lieutenant
Stuart Campbell sighted the Antarctic continent from a seaplane and
named the high land to the southeast Princess Elizabeth Land.
The first recorded landing in the region was made in 1935 by the
Norwegian whaler Captain Klarius Mikkelsen in the vessel
Thorshavn.
Mikkelsen named the hills after the Vestfold
province of Norway
, on the
western side of Oslo Fjord, which he considered it resembled, and
where the Christensen company's headquarters was located, at the
town of Sandefjord.
Davis Station
On 20 February 1935, together with his wife and seven crew members
(including the ship's dentist, Lief Sørsdal), Mikkelsen landed in a
small bay on an unnamed island at the northern end of the Vestfold
Hills. Mrs
Caroline Mikkelsen was
the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic continent and the
party raised the Norwegian flag on an improvised flagpole and built
a rock cairn to mark the site. This cairn was found by members of
the
Australian
National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) in 1960 but was
lost for many years until its rediscovery in 1995. (As an
interesting aside, Caroline Mikkelsen was still alive in 1996 and
received word of the rediscovery of the original flag pole.)
Captain Mikkelsen named the area "Ingrid Christensen Land" after
the wife of the ship's owner, Lars Christensen. Mrs Christensen was
later to land in Antarctica herself - on 30 January 1937, at
Scullin Monolith (which the Norwegians called Klarius Mikkelsen
Mountain).
The
Thorshavn and Klarius Mikkelsen, along with Lars
Christensen, were back in the Vestfold Hills area in the 1936–37
summer. An area to the immediate north of the Vestfold Hills was
used as a take-off and landing area for a seaplane, from which
oblique aerial photos were taken for mapping purposes. The first
map of the Vestfold Hills, derived from this imagery, was published
after WW2.
The next
recorded visitors to the area were the American
explorer
Lincoln Ellsworth and his Australian aircraft pilot and observer,
Sir Hubert Wilkins in Ellsworth's
ship the Wyatt Earp. Despite Wilkins' protestations that
Mawson had already claimed the area for Australia, Ellsworth
planned to lodge a counter claim for America. In response to this,
Wilkins took pre-emptive action and made two landings. The first
was on one of the Rauer Islands, at 68° 46' South, 77° 50' East on
8 January 1939, and the second on a rocky outcrop at 68° 22' South
70° 33' East on 11 January 1939. At both of these locations he
deposited decrees recognising Australia's right to ". . .
administrate . . . those parts of His Majesty's dominions in the
Antarctic Seas". Along with the decree he left a copy of the famous
Australian geographical magazine 'Walkabout". Of three such sites,
only the northern cairn has been located and hence the name
"Walkabout Rocks".
During the U.S. Antarctic explorations that formed a part of
"Operation Highjump" in 1947 the
USS Currituck visited the
area, but no landing took place. As part of Operation Highjump, the
Vestfolds and surrounding were extensively photographed from the
air.
The first
ANARE landing in the Vestfold Hills
was made on 3 March 1954 by Phillip Law, Peter Shaw, John Hansen,
Arthur Gwynn and R. Thompson. They raised the Australian flag at
Law Cairn, to the north of Davis Station, but had to return to
their ship soon after due to deteriorating weather.
On 12
January 1956, members of the Soviet
Antarctic
Expedition landed on the Ingrid Christensen Coast, in preparation
for the International
Geophysical Year (1957–58). The Soviets did not
stay for long but even today the Russian presence is betrayed by
some distinctively Russian names on the map (Lakes Lebed, Zvezda
and Druzhby among them) They later established their base at
Mirny
Station
, some 350km to the east of Davis.
As Phillip Law recalled during a short visit to Davis on 11 January
1998, it was felt that if Australia did not establish a base in the
Vestfold Hills the Russians would, and so in 1955 the Australian
Government announced that a new station would be established in the
Vestfold Hills.
A further exploratory visit was made by ANARE in January 1955 that
involved two teams traversing much of the Vestfold Hills. During
January 1957, an ANARE party led by Dr Phillip Law sailing on the
Kista Dan attempted to locate a suitable site for the
station. This proved difficult due to a lack of good ship
anchorages and a scarcity of fresh water sources. On 12 January,
after two days of attempting to find a suitable site, a last minute
decision was made to locate the station on a small rocky plateau
located above a black sandy beach. Unloading began immediately and,
on 13 January 1957, a small ceremony was held to officially open
the new station. It was named Davis " . . .to honour Captain
John King Davis, a famous Antarctic
navigator and captain . . . at present . . . living in Melbourne, a
member of the ANARE Planning Committee". (Law's address on the
day). After the ceremony, unloading recommenced and continued until
20 January when the Kista Dan sailed. The Kista Dan made a return
visit to Davis later dropping off dogs and one more
expeditioner.
Bob Dingle, Alan Hawker, Nils Lied, Bill Lucas and Bruce Stinear
made up the first party to winter in the Vestfold Hills.
The party
was not completely isolated however as Auster
aircraft flew between Mawson Station
and Davis several times that year exchanging
personnel and supplies.
Davis was
temporarily closed on 25 January 1965 in order to make resources
available for the rebuilding of Casey Station
. It was reopened on 15 February 1969 and has
been continuously occupied since that time. The original small huts
("dongas") fell into disuse and disrepair from the late 1970s /
early 1980s, with a major rebuilding program.
Davis has become the busiest of Australia's Antarctic stations
supporting a wide variety of scientific research in both the local
and surrounding areas during the summer time. During the winter
time, the principal research activity is Upper Atmospheric
Physics.
Climate
Davis Station experiences a
Polar
climate:
Climate Table
|
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
| Mean daily maximum temperature (°C) |
3.1 |
-0.3 |
-5.6 |
-10.4 |
-12.7 |
-12.4 |
-14.4 |
-14.2 |
-13.1 |
-9.0 |
-2.4 |
2.5 |
-7.4 |
| Mean daily minimum temperature (°C) |
-1.2 |
-4.5 |
-10.8 |
-16.1 |
-18.9 |
-18.7 |
-20.6 |
-20.7 |
-20.0 |
-15.3 |
-7.7 |
-2.1 |
-13.0 |
| Mean daily sunshine (hours) |
8.9 |
6.0 |
3.1 |
2.2 |
0.7 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
1.9 |
4.1 |
5.3 |
7.7 |
9.9 |
4.2 |
| Mean number of cloudy days |
16.9 |
17.5 |
21.0 |
18.7 |
18.4 |
15.6 |
15.2 |
17.0 |
16.2 |
18.7 |
17.2 |
16.6 |
209.0 |
|
Source: Bureau of Meteorology |
See also
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