The Australian Antarctic Program is led by the Australian Antarctic Division, as part of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Behold the majestic "headless chicken monster" or Enypniasties eximia, spotted recently in the Southern Ocean for the first time on an Australian fisheries camera.
Our expeditioners in
#Antarctica
follow strict guidelines about approaching wildlife, like keeping 50m away from breeding/moulting penguins.
But sometimes emperor penguins just want to tag along, like on this trek to Auster Rookery.
Video: Matt Williams, Mawson station leader
When it's minus 22°C and the water temperature is minus 2°C who could possibly be mad enough to go for a swim...
Happy Midwinter Day from our crazy
#Antarctic
expeditioners!
Rest assured Mr Neill did NOT take pigs to Antarctica. For reasons best know to himself, Mr Neill takes toy pigs around the world, photographing them in various locations for entertainment. These pigs broke no rules...although they did appear to enjoy their time on the ice!!!
PIGS IN ANTARCTICA !
Yes the GlobeTrotters made it to The Ice today. Many thanks
@AusAntarctic
for being so generous, and pig friendly.
This has to be a world first ...
#Toocute
! These emperor penguin chicks are on an icy
#school
excursion at Auster rookery in East
#Antarctica
. The downy chicks are growing up fast. By December, they'll be as big as their parents! Thanks to
@AusAntarctic
expeditioner Nick Cullen for sharing!
Australia’s most ambitious polar exploration project in 20 years has set off for the
#Antarctic
interior in the quest for a million-year ice core.
A team of 10 expeditioners is aiming to forge a 1200km path to Little Dome C.
Read more: 👇
We are very pleased to announce Prof Nicole Webster as the new Chief Scientist of the Australian Antarctic Division, starting in May. Prof Webster is a marine microbial ecologist, currently Snr Research Scientist at AIMS, and Dep Director of the Aust Centre for Ecogenomics at UQ.
Today: the end of an era. The Aurora Australis goes 'off hire' tonight, its service to the Australian Antarctic Program over.
We salute the many hard-working crew members over 31 years who safely transported our expeditioners to the most amazing places on earth...and home again.
ICYMI: Delivery of tents and cargo for a three year science campaign kicking off at the Denman Glacier in
#Antarctica
next year. ✈
Thanks again to
@AusAirForce
and
@DefenceAust
.
Read 👉
Watch 👇
A 'waddle' of emperor penguins marched on Australia’s Casey station last night, delighting expeditioners and surprising resident Adélie
#Penguins
. It’s uncommon to see the largest of the penguin species close to station. Thanks 📷 Justin Chambers, Will Kenton and Brendan Barnes.
A Macquarie Island expeditioner was outside taking long exposures of the
#aurora
australis when a ‘fireball’ came screaming across the
#sky
. He’d just opened the shutter & was able to capture the
#meteor
mid-flight.
#photographer
#photography
#Nightsky
📷 T.Luttrell
In a 3500 km mercy dash from
#Hobart
,
@AusAntarctic
has carried out an emergency medical evacuation of an expeditioner from a
#UnitedStates
Antarctic base. We received the request from
@NSF
yesterday, and sent our Airbus A319.
More info:
📷 C.Strauss
Happy
#WorldOceansDay
!
Lungs of the deep sea; engine room of climate; powerhouse of the world’s longest current; the stormiest place on Earth; a truly global ocean; home to the largest animals that have ever existed – how awesome is the Southern Ocean?
What a cool chick! This rare king penguin chick has been standing out in a crowd on Macquarie Island. Doctor, Kate Kloza, snapped the bedraggled bird on a drizzly day at Sandy Bay. The penguin's pale feathers are caused by a genetic mutation.
📷
@Dr_Polarbird
Our
#icebreaker
Aurora Australis is home in Hobart for the last time, after three decades of
#Antarctic
service.
Welcome home, expeditioners and crew!
See more at
The first our
#Antarctic
expeditioners heard of this lone emperor penguin was “a loud squawk from a distant iceberg,” before it came over for a closer inspection! The team was busy drilling ice for a traverse route near the Mawson research station.
📷Matt Williams
We did it.
After five years of planning and 1200kms across an untravelled and icy landscape, our ten person traverse team has arrived at Little Dome C.
Congratulations to the traverse team and the
@MillionYearIce
team.
An epic effort.
10 January 2023
Arrived at Little Dome C!
This season we faced challenges: An untravelled route, a record distance to cover with new equipment and a new generation of traversing expeditioners. /1
The Easter bunny has been banished from sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island but expeditioners are jumping for joy.
After
@TasmaniaParks
eradicated feral rabbits, rats and mice from the World Heritage-listed island five years ago, Macca is once again lush and verdant.
Any day now! ⏳ A male emperor penguin checks his egg at Auster rookery in
#Antarctica
. The males can't feed with an egg on their feet, which takes 65-75 days to hatch. When chicks appear in July, their fathers have fasted for 4 mths and lost nearly 1/2 their weight.
📸 R. Mundy
Field biologists recently spotted this curious pup and its mother hauled out on the ice near Davis research station and enjoying the sunshine. Our records show that the mother was tagged at Davis, as a pup back in 1987, making her 31 years young!
#Brrrr
- Australian
#Antarctic
expeditioners are celebrating midwinter’s day with a subzero swim through a hole cut in the sea ice. What a way to mark the shortest day of the year!
Farewell sunshine! Yesterday evening (at 2pm), the team at Davis station in
#Antarctica
enjoyed their last sunset for the next 5 weeks.
In -16°C, they were also thrilled to see a ‘sun pillar’, the glints of millions of ice crystals. Hello
#MidwintersDay
!
📷 Tom Clarke, plumber
The things you see on a mission from Mawson! AAD expeditioner Todd Heery captured these jade berg beauties more than 100 kilometres west of station on a recent field trip. The striking dark stripes are formed by sediment layers entrained in the
#ice
. 📷: Todd Heery
🧊 Today at 4 Aust research stations in
#Antarctica
and the sub-Antarctic – Casey, Davis, Mawson and Macquarie Island – and at AAD in
#Tasmania
, we celebrate Midwinter Day.
🤠 As tradition demands, the team of 15 at Mawson cut through sea ice to create a sub-zero swimming pool.
ICYMI: Australia's traverse convoy of tractor trains has set off for the
#Antarctic
interior in the mission for the million year ice core.
For updates from the field follow
@millionyearice
Read more about the quest 👇
🎥 Stuart Griggs
Today in a nippy -18.6°C, Mawson research station slipped into the
#Antarctic
twilight zone. Our 19 expeditioners there waved off the last sunset for a couple of weeks. Bring on
#MidwintersDay
!
📷 Matt Williams, station leader
Hey, is this thing on?? Expeditioners attracted interest from some curious Adelie penguins when they visited Shirley Island, near Casey, recently. This one took a particular shine to the camera.
📷Jay Burgers
Green with envy? Davis station expeditioner, Derryn Harvie, took this snap on his way to work today at 8AM. The sun is only just returning to our
#Antarctic
stations and clear, crisp mornings are providing spectacular
#AuroraAustralis
displays. 📷 D. Harvie
🐧🚦❤ The morning commute for the Casey research station crew was briefly disrupted today.
#Antarctic
expeditioners abide by strict guidelines for approaching wildlife but Adélie penguins like to play by their own rules. 📸: Sean McComish/AAD
Today marks 73 years since
#Australia
’s Macquarie Island research station opened, operating as our
#subAntarctic
#science
outpost since 1948. The current
@BOM_au
observers on Macca celebrate by recreating a photo of expeditioners past.
📸 Norman Laird (1948), Alex Correia (2021)
#Penguins
and perfect
#weather
... do we need to say more?
A team from Mawson research station headed out to Auster rookery recently to get up close and personal with one of nature's great wonders.
📷 P. James
It’s minus 23 degrees Celsius, dark and you’re standing on the edge of a hole dug into the sea-ice - what do you do?
@AusAntarctic
expeditioners plunge in of course!
Check out Davis station team’s
#midwinter
dip in an icy pool.
#brrrrr
Read more
Our hard working crew has realigned our blue-ice runway on a slow-moving
#glacier
, and dusted off some snow ❄️
#Wilkins
#aerodrome
is ready for the first flight of the summer research season for the Australian
#Antarctic
Program.
Now with added halo 😇
📷 Sam Jacobs
Swimming doesn't usually happen down south, but it’s an important tradition for
#Australia
's 86 expeditioners on
#MidwintersDay
. In
#Antarctica
, the
#winter
#solstice
is celebrated with a sub-zero plunge in the sea-ice, and on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Is, a dip in the chilly surf.
Straight to the pool room at 00deg00.000’S!
This evening (Atlantic time), Australia's new
#Antarctic
icebreaker RSV
#Nuyina
crossed the equator for the first time. A shipload of people celebrated with a plunge into the moon pool on the marine
#science
deck.
📸 Pete Harmsen/AAD
😏 Stuck at home, dreaming of escape? Enjoy our new series ‘Armchair Antarctica’, and experience the raw and rugged beauty of the icy continent from the comfort of your living room.
🌊 The first episode takes us on the journey south…
Hop to it!
While helping with seabird research on Hop Island (near Davis station) expeditioner Daniel Dyer caught the
#antics
of a trio of Adélie
#penguins
.
"I said ‘hi Smudge, did you miss me?’. And he lifted his head and called out again. It was literally every time I spoke, he’d respond."
The remarkable
#Antarctic
story of
#bromance
between a person and a penguin.
Read more 🐧
📷 Guy Edgar
On the weekend the winter crew at Casey station returned home after a year away.
They’ve swapped with a new team who will lead the station for summer and the year ahead.
Well done everyone!
Thanks to
@DefenceAust
&
@AusAirForce
for the impressive lift home.
📸 Marcus Luciani
First nuyina on RSV Nuyina!
Last night Australia's new icebreaker was treated to its first aurora australis dancing across the Southern Ocean sky.
#Nuyina
means ‘southern lights’ in palawa kani, the language of Tasmanian Aborigines.
Follow:
📸 P. Harmsen
AND THEY'RE BACK! 🎉 MPV Everest, carrying 72 expeditioners and 37 crew, docked in Fremantle at about 5.30 local time this afternoon. We'll hear more from the voyage tomorrow.
📸 Peta Carlyon
17 Jan 2023, -30 deg C
🧊 in the hold!!
Successful transport of our first shallow cores by Basler ✈️ from
@OldestIce
skiway to Casey Stn.
Important test of cold chain ahead of deeper ice. Excited to run these first cores through our
@AusAntarctic
@Ant_Partnership
labs 🥼!!
One of those
#Antarctic
moments that takes your breath away. The Aurora Australis has successfully resupplied Dumont d’Urville for the
#French
program
@https
://twitter.com/_IPEV.
Next stop, Macquarie Island then
#Hobart
.
#sunrise
📸 R Youd
Tomorrow is World Penguin Day! 🐧
There are 18 species of penguins, five of which live in Antarctica and another four on sub-Antarctic islands, but nearly all penguins live in the southern hemisphere.
Find our more about these amazing birds here 👉
On an Antarctic station, there’s only one doctor and no nurses. In a medical emergency, it may take the plumber to be the anaesthetist.
Royal Hobart Hospital does a great job training our Antarctic expeditioners to be Lay Surgical Assistants.
@NASA
@CARMMedicine
@AusSpaceAgency
You can never see too many
#Aurora
! This amazing kaleidoscope of colours was captured
@AusAntarctic
Davis station last night, just before the wind picked up sending the tripod sliding across the ice! Thanks for the 📷 intrepid Derryn Harvie!
“May she sail long and well, and may good fortune go with all who sail on her.” (Hazel Hawke launching Aurora Australis in 1989). Bon voyage as our
#icebreaker
leaves
#Hobart
on its last voyage.
Heavens above! This magnificent aurora australis was captured by Davis station plumber, Neil Brown.
It was particularly intense due to a geomagnetic storm caused by a solar wind shock wave hitting the Earth's magnetic field.
#Antarctica
#aurora
#lightupmylife
📸 N. Brown
We couldn't be more delighted to have
#nuyina
safely settled in its home port. Thanks to the great people of Hobart who joined us online and sent photos from their homes of the ship sailing up the Derwent. Here's some of our fav official images.
📸Rob Blakers
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! It’s hard to think of a more devoted
#dad
in the animal world than a male emperor penguin. He uses his feet as a nest to incubate the single egg, which takes up to 75 days to hatch.
📷 Gary Miller, Auster Rookery,
#Antarctica
|
#fathersday2020
Standing in the light of your halo 😇
The stunning summer sun at Mawson station has delivered a string of solar halos. A solar halo occurs when ice crystals in the air interact with sun light. ☀️
📸 Albert Petersen
The world’s most advanced
#Antarctic
icebreaker, science and resupply ship, Australia’s RSV
#Nuyina
, has arrived at its home port of Hobart. The nation is celebrating!
📷 R. Jupe; M. Horstman
🚢 ICE TO MEET YOU!
Australia’s new
#Antarctic
icebreaker RSV Nuyina and Britain’s new polar ship
#RRSSirDavidAttenborough
meet in the English Channel. Both research ships are on sea trials before fully operational.
📽️ Flying Focus
@BAS_News
,
@NERCscience
.
#photobomb
this Adelie penguin 🐧 wants in on the resupply action at the
#French
station Dumont d’Urville!
Cargo and supplies are today being unloaded from Australia’s icebreaker in
#perfect
conditions, minus 2 degrees and just 3kts of wind.
#summertime
@_IPEV
📸 R. Youd
Here comes the sun! (kind of) 😎 After more than five weeks of twilight the sun has finally risen above the horizon at Davis research station in
#Antarctica
, albeit very briefly. The day lasted just 32 minutes. Expeditioners still soaked up every bit of it.
🎥 Tiarnán Colgan
Today is Antarctica Day, 61 years since Australia and 11 other nations signed the Antarctic Treaty. Australia remains deeply committed to the
#Treaty
and related agreements, which establish
#Antarctica
as a natural reserve for
#peace
,
#science
, and environmental protection. (1/2)
On this day 60 years ago a remarkable
#Treaty
came into force. It enshrined that
#Antarctica
shall be used only for peaceful purposes and cooperation in
#science
. Today we celebrate the significance of the Antarctic Treaty.
📸 Charles Millen/AAD
30 years ago today, Australia, France & other
#Antarctic
Treaty nations adopted the
#MadridProtocol
to ban mining in
#Antarctica
& protect the Antarctic continent as a natural reserve devoted to peace &
#science
.
📸 Patrick James
What a day at Australia’s Wilkins Aerodrome! Perfect for the offloading of the custom-designed
#Antarctic
tractor for the AAD’s million-year ice-core mission. ‘Bungle Bungle’ artwork by Ken Done.
@kendonegallery
@AusAirForce
#MYIC
📸 Dane Riley, Aerodrome Plant Operator
Just drop it there thanks.✈
This is how 10 tonnes of gear is delivered for a deep field camp in
#Antarctica
.
It'll be used for a 3 year science campaign to study climate issues at the Denman Glacier.
Read More👇
📸 D. Knoff, J. Williams, D. Pangrazio
We ❤ oceans.
Cameras deployed nearly 3000 metres below the surface of the Southern Ocean have captured rare vision of the deep sea dwellers who call the world’s coldest ocean home.
Happy World Oceans Day!
To learn more:
There's more to a map than meets the eye!
The most detailed map of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean to be produced by the AAD has been published in 1:20 million scale.
To read more about the new map and download your own copy click here 👉
📷 AAD
☀️ After five weeks or so of
#winter
twilight and darkness, the
#Antarctic
sun has returned to Davis research station. Meteorologist Rachel McInerney got a sneak preview from the vantage point of Mikkelsen Cairn.
📷 Damien Everett,
@BOM_au
Not a blizzard in sight (for now)! Australia’s Wilkins Aerodrome near Casey station is waking up after winter, in time for the new
#Antarctic
season. Hard work on the 3.5 kilometre blue ice runway includes proof-rolling to compact and test the
#ice
surface. 📷Matt Ryan
😎 A spring day near Davis research station: convoys of penguins travel across the sea ice; Weddell seal pups and mums enjoy the sunshine; skuas keep a beady eye on everyone.
📸 J. Cherry, E. Rodewald, J. Smith
Follow us at for more images of
#Antarctica
.
#HappyFeet
scratches an itch at the Auster Rookery in East
#Antarctica
.
The emperor
#penguin
chick was snapped by Australian Antarctic expeditioner Shane Bilston, who said the
#photo
documents one of the most amazing experiences of his life.
📷 S Bilston
It's not every day that a
#Penguin
walks through your neighbourhood or workplace. But at Australia’s Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research stations, penguins are regular visitors. Just another day in the office
#WorldPenguinDay
📷N. Tennant, M. Low, G. Stone, J. Cadden
"You are loved, you are valued and you can be an important part of great things being achieved. Sending good vibes for
#PolarPride
from the Mawson research station community in
#Antarctica
, and this proud and happy gay man at its’ helm."
- Matt Williams, Station Leader
Check out the stunning jade
#icebergs
our expeditioners were lucky enough to encounter during a recent trek to Auster Rookery near Mawson research station,
#Antarctica
.
Why their distinctive colour? 👉
📸 M. Williams, Mawson station leader