Bob Dovers does sterling OIC work setting the rhythm and mode of Mawson Station winters, though at considerable cost to his health. John Bechervaise continues in the grooves established by Dovers, cementing Australia's toehold in the cold and the meson telescopes in place. Phillip Law goes in to bat against bureaucrats cratting for all their bureau's worth and manages to keep the focus on science, though some of his ideas about what to do with an Australian territorial claim once his efforts have gained some traction for one are a bit odd in a present day context. A busy 1954 and 1955 for ANARE, though I couldn't find much about what the Mawson Station winterers got up to during their southern sojourn.

I recorded these interviews at the Australian Antarctic Festival in August 2024. I release them now in lieu of historical narrative episodes I should have ready but don't because reasons.

I recorded these interviews at the Australian Antarctic Festival in August 2024.  I release them now in lieu of historical narrative episodes I should have ready but don't because reasons. 

Phil Law and J. Lauritsen Lines join forces to finally get the ANARE a continental toehold.

What do you get if you cross religion with flat Earthers and Antarctica? A cross podcaster and little else.

Coming back at yer, six months late and barely on topic, episode 157 addresses the increasingly loud and dunderheaded online chatter about escaping society and trying to establish society, only with more ice and surprise cannibalism. Libertarians probably don't listen to my output, but any that do can dig a well, actually, and throw themselves down it before getting in touch to try to correct me on where I got their politics, reading preferences, and predictions about their Antarctic ventures wrong.

You don't just throw a Trans-Antarctic Expedition or an International Geophysical Year together. These things take planning. Here's some background on the planners and introductions to some of the doers.

Several years of Macquarie Island winters receive attention as I chill out under a Casuarina after several fraught months.

I give voice to another almost but not quite lost snippet from "Big Dead Place" and I give the microphone to Adam Fitzgerald who voices the introduction to Jeff Maynard's new book, "The Frontier Below."

In 1983 Australian glaciologist Trevor Hamley joined a Soviet traverse from the Russian coastal station, Mirny, to Dome Charlie, high atop the Antarctic plateau. Bouncing about in the back of a T-55 tank converted into a living quarters/galley/dining space/lab, recording locations on audio cassette tape, wielding a hammer, and ignoring the ideological and political drivers of the cold war in the name of survival, camaraderie, and science, Trevor experienced Antarctica in a unique context at a unique point in history. His book, "Vodka in a Vegemite Jar" recounts his experiences during the preparation for and during the traverse in compelling prose that keeps one eye on the immediacy of the narrative and another on the forty year perspective 2023 affords on his time in the back of a Kharkovchanka. Introduced to Trevor by Jeff Wilson, who recounts his own Antarctic tale in episode 151, I spent an afternoon with the Hamleys after reading a galley proof copy of the manuscript. I listened intently as Trevor mapped the overall arc of the story he recounted in his text as well as the story of bringing that text together. Fortunately I remembered to press record on the Zoom H4N, so you get to listen intently, too. I am proud to bring "Vodka in a Vegemite Jar" to the attention of "Ice Coffee" listeners and I encourage them to head to https://www.trevorhamley.com/ to see what's on offer for $30 plus postage. My copy arrived in the mail today and I'm over the moon to see the finished product in its colour illustrated glory. That's going straight to the pool room.