Construction site

From an old slide, copied too small here long ago. This construction site was known, at the time, as Repstat - short for Replacement Station. The old Wilkes base, built by the USA during the 1958 International Geophysical Year, was across the bay behind the ship, but mostly buried under metres of snow and in an unsafe condition. We spent a fortnight working here and, when we left, had erected a line of huts up the right of the road (one of the DUKWs on the road).

The new station was later named Casey, but It has since been rebuilt yet again in a much more substantial form. You can see it here (also a 48 hour webcam video).

While we were there, another of the Lauritzen Line "Dan" ships, the Thala Dan also arrived and we saw the very uncommon sight of two of them in an Antarctic port together (see PiP). Some of the old Wilkes base buildings are visible on the horizon in this image.

UPDATE FOOTNOTE: I've updated this image, but unfortunately I'm unable to put it in a larger copy (short of creating a new posting). I've updated it because Today (19 Feb 2022) is the 54th anniversary of the official opening of the Casey station that we helped build.