Farewell Hobart

Tuesday 19th April 2011. The day I left on the Aurora Australis and headed for the cold south to a fabled place called Macquarie Island. The weather was warm and inviting, the bags packed easily and the ship - well, it was bright orange.

Well packed helicopters

See, I really did board the ship

Disembarking from the wharf

Over the next few days I'll meet some of the awesome people I'll be spending a few days, months or even a whole year with. The excitement is high and all are trying to get to know each other as quickly as possible.

Travel Companions

Meet (mini) Thylacine Polyesterus, a small stuffed animal on loan from a friend. He likes chocolate, helping out around the work place and going on adventures to far away places. I think he's been to Bali and Hawaii, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, as you can see, Thylacine was rather excited about boarding a plane to his ancestral home state of Tasmania. He'd never been before and wanted to acquaint himself with this wondrous place.

Thylacine had also been told he'd be going on a year long trip to a cold distant land. While travelling around Hobart, he decided to keep an eye out for the ship.

A very excited Thylacine leaps out of the bag in the hotel room

He wasn't sure what the ship would look like, but thought maybe this one would be too small

All that walking was tiring. Playing on the swings would surely fix that.

Thylacine was exploring, looking for things to pounce on.

The ship has been seen! Thylacine was a little nervous about the size.

My fellow expeditioners will most likely want to take Thylacine to all sorts of fun and interesting places. I'm sure he'll see more of the island than I will.

The Date is Set

I'd like to say that there were tears and wailing and all those sorts of mushy things, but everyone seemed to be pretty happy to see the back of me... Nah, not really. There weren't any tears, but plenty of hugs - and food, so much food.
After the training finished up on April 1st I had some short leave and went home to Sydney for about a week. I was able to see most people I wanted, unfortunately there's not always enough time for everything. A huge thank you to all who I saw before leaving on a teeny tiny jet plane.


To the family & friends who are off in other parts of Australia, farewell, I'll see you sometime after April 19th 2012.

Departure will be at 3pm on Tuesday April 19th 2011, from Macquarie Wharf No. 3. I'm feeling relief, more than anything, that the date is finally set and the time to go has arrived.

I am now leaving on a boat for a new home, just as my Nonno left Italy all those years ago (or the various convicts from the other side of the family). Can you tell I'm excited about the adventure?

Next stop: Macquarie Island

Station Duties

Aside from an expeditioner's job, each person is required to assist general station duties and extra jobs.

The duties are usually done on a Saturday and include:

• Cleaning bathrooms
• Vacuuming work places
• Cleaning communal areas
• Any other generic jobs

The one main duty that is done by a different person every day of the week (or for two - three days at a time) is the "slushy," a.k.a. kitchen hand or dish pig.

As for extra jobs, these are conducted at any time outside of work hours. The list includes:

• Anaesthetists & Theatre Nurses - To assist the Doctor when necessary
• Beach Coordinator - Takes overall control of all water craft during station refuel and resupply
• Boating Officer - In charge of maintaining the IRBs (Zodiacs) that are on station
• Clothing Store Manager - Distributes extra kit when necessary
• Deputy Station Leader
  
• DVD Editors
  
• Electoral Returning Officers
• Environment Officers
  
• Field Equipment Officer
• Fire Chief & Deputy & team members - This should be titled Emergency Response Team as they are responsible for any chemical spills and confined spaces too.
• Flag Officer - They're Federal Government buildings, so yes, the flag is flown.
• Fort Knox & 'Bottle Shop' Manager
  
• Gymnasium Officer
• Hairdresser
• Head Brewer (and team) - Home brew, because we can.
• Hydroponics Coordinator
• Icy News & Station News Coordinator
• Librarian
• OH&S Officer
• Postal Agent
• Projectionist
• Search & Rescue Leader and team members
• Sewing Officer
• Social Club Treasurer
• Station Photographer
• Waste Management Officer
• Web Coordinator
• Year Book Editor

For Macca this year,  all of these jobs are spread across 13 people, so there'll be a bit of extra strain trying to get everything done. I will be one of the Deputy Fire Chiefs, one of the Search and Rescue Leaders, Brewmaster, assisting with hydroponics and assistant station photographer.

Mmmmmm, home brew.

Training Days

Here's a selection of photos from the SAR and Fire training.