Antarctica 1

ANTARCTICA 1

Cont.

ANTARCTICA I .... HOW DID IT GO DOWN THERE? by "The Gaffer"

(Extract from "AURORA" Journal of the ANARE Club # June 1964)

No doubt you've read a lot and heard a lot about the Volkswagen that was taken down to Mawson in 1963; well, here is a first hand account on what it did during its tour of duty in Antarctica. First of all, it didn't take the place of any tracked vehicles, but it certainly filled the gap between walking and driving the Snowtrac. The furthest distance the VW travelled in any one direction was about 12 miles, but over the twelve months it covered a total of about 1300 miles. To start with, there were a few bets made that the car wouldn't negotiate the ice slope behind the station, but this was quickly disproved when the car, fitted with chains to the rear wheels, made the distance to GWAM without any worry. With this minor horror stretch conquered, it was then taken through to the mountain across the slotted ice and snowfields. A wheeled vehicle driven across this sort of terrain can get into a lot of strife, but it was found that with a bit of speed under its belt, these dangers were eliminated (sometimes). The VW now holds the unofficial record for the best time from Rumdoodle to Mawson, a time of 50 minutes for the 12-mile run, and MAN ! that suspension was sure working overtime! (now that's how the frame-head stress came about). In the early part of the year, the VW was put into active service in towing a loaded dog sledge up to Rumdoodle to assist a field party in saving them the worry of driving and hauling the dogs up the icy slope. It made a run up to Fischer Nunatak, and surprised everyone when it made the steep snow under its own steam. Whenever a Russian aircraft visited the station, the car put up its TAXI sign and scooted up to the airfield to assist in transporting the visitors back to the station. At times it was quite fortunate that it had passengers, 3 or 4 hefty Ruskies, as not all the snowfields could be avoided, and when it did sink down to its belly plate in soft snow, it was an easy matter to lift the car clear of the bog up onto more solid snow. When the sea ice formed, the VW was used for many forms of recreation, from a pleasant Sunday afternoon drive around the islands, to being used in towing ardent skiers around the harbour, at rather hair-raising speeds. Many's the time, though, one could see the shovels being wielded when it was found the car didn't quite make it through a snow drift. Our devoted glaciologist found the car very useful, especially when he wanted to run out to his hole in the ice, off the West Arm, where he was carrying out regular studies on the growth of the sea ice etc. The VW was used for other scientific work, such as checking the ice accumulation stake line between the station and the mountains, for driving from stake to stake proved much faster than in the tracked snow vehicles, but certainly played havoc with the nerves of the passengers as the fearless driver slot-hopped around the ice domes. Apart from a bit of electric welding needed in repairing a section of the front axle mount that had been severely weakened by the type of terrain it was subjected to, and the replacement of the front "shockers" which had given up the ghost due to the same reason, the VW gave very good service with a minimum of worry to the mechanical section, who only had to service it and feed it petrol regularly. On the whole, the car gave the 1963 team at Mawson, good service as The Second Car.

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