Australia’s coldest, wettest and most isolated home renovation is to continue this year with a group of carpenters, builders and electricians setting off for a remote Australian outpost on the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.
Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley said the island was an important global site for scientific research including monitoring Southern Hemisphere weather and climate.
Ms Ley said the project to upgrade the sub-Antarctic island’s 73-year-old research station, which housed 20 scientists and researchers, began in 2016.
“The group will spend a year on the island with renovations expected to be completed in seven years,” Ms Ley said.
“The team of highly skilled tradespeople are prepared for all eventualities; they will be reusing and recycling as much of the infrastructure [as] they can,” she said.
“The World Heritage-listed Island is home to around 3.5 million seabirds, 80,000 elephant seals and about 20 expeditioners.”
Ms Ley said the renovations would include consolidating the station area and reducing the total number of buildings on the island; renovating core buildings to ensure ongoing year-round operation; decommissioning older redundant buildings; refurbishing three of the six field huts; assessing ways of protecting the station from ocean inundation; and removing asbestos.
“Renovating the current buildings will ensure the Macquarie Island station is functional and able to support long term science for all key stakeholders including the Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency and the Tasmanian Government,” the Minister said.
