Davis Station

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This article is about a base in Antarctica. For other uses of Davis Station, see Davis.

Davis Station

Davis Station Information

Country:

Australia

State:

Australian Antarctic Territory

District:

Princess Elizabeth Land District

State Capital:

Capital of the Australian Antartic Territory

District Capital:

Capital of the Princess Elizabeth Land District

Position:

Princess Elizabeth Land

Population:

Coordinants:

68°35′S 77°58′E.

Foundation:

1957

Antarctica map with Davis Station on the right of the map.

Davis Station

Davis Station is a permanent base in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). It is the principal Australian scientific research station.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Climate
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Geography

Davis Station is located at 68°35′S 77°58′E in Princess Elizabeth Land in a remarkable ice free area known as the Vestfold Hills.

[edit] History

The first recorded sighting of the Vestfold Hills was made in 1935 by the Norwegian whaler Captain Klarius Mikkelsen in the vessel Thorshaven who sighted the area and named it after the Vestfold province of Norway, on the western side of Oslo Fjord, which he considered it resembled, and where the Christensen company's headquarters was located, at the town of SandeFjord.

On 20 February 1935, together with his wife and seven crew members (including the ship's dentist, Lief Sørsdal), Mikkelsen landed in a small bay on what is now known as Tryne Island at the northern end of the Vestfold Hills. (Tryne means "pure" in Norwegian) Mrs Caroline Mikkelsen was the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic continent and the party raised the Norwegian flag on an improvised flagpole and built a rock cairn to mark the site. This cairn was found by ANARE expeditioners in 1960 but was lost for many years until its rediscovery in 1995. (As an interesting aside, Caroline Mikkelsen was still alive in 1996 and received word of the rediscovery of the original flag pole) Captain Mikkelsen named the area "Ingrid Christensen Land" after the wife of the ship's owner, Lars Christensen. Mrs Christensen was later to land in Antarctica herself - on January 30, 1937, at Scullin Monolith (which the Norwegians called Klarius Mikkelsen Mountain).

The next recorded visitors to the area were the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and his Australian aircraft pilot and observer, Sir Hubert Wilkins in Ellsworth's ship the Wyatt Earp. Despite Wilkins' protestations that Mawson had already claimed the area for Australia, Ellsworth planned to lodge a counter claim for America. In response to this, Wilkins took pre-emptive action and made two landings. The first was on one of the Rauer Islands, at 68° 46' South, 77° 50' East on 8 January 1939, and the second on a rocky outcrop at 68° 22' South 70° 33' East on 11 January 1939. At both of these locations he deposited decrees recognising Australia's right to ". . . administrate . . . those parts of His Majesty's dominions in the Antarctic Seas". Along with the decree he left a copy of the famous Australian geographical magazine 'Walkabout". The northern cairn has been located and hence the name "Walkabout Rocks".

During the American Antarctic explorations that formed a part of Operation Highjump" in 1947 the USS Currituck visited the area, but no landing took place. As part of Operation Highjump, the Vestfolds and surrounding were extensively photographed from the air.

The first ANARE landing in the Vestfold Hills was made on the 3rd March, 1954 by Phillip Law, Peter Shaw, John Hansen, Arthur Gwynn and R. Thompson.

On 12 January 1956, members of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition landed on the Ingrid Christensen Coast, in preparation for the International Geophysical Year (1957-58). The Soviets did not stay for long but even today the Russian presence is betrayed by some distinctively Russian names on the map. (Lakes Lebed, Zvezda and Druzhby among them) They later established their base at Mirny, some 350km to the east of Davis.

As Phillip Law recalled during a short visit to Davis on 11 January 1998, it was felt that if Australia did not establish a base in the Vestfold Hills the Russians would, and so in 1955 the Australian Government announced that a new station would be established in the Vestfold Hills.

Following the first ANARE landing in 1954, several years elapsed without further ANARE activity. However, during January of 1957, an ANARE party led by Dr Phillip Law sailing on the Kista Dan attempted to locate a suitable site for the station. This proved difficult due a lack of good ship anchorages and a scarcity of fresh water sources. On the 12th January, after two days of attempting to find a suitable site, a last minute decision was made to locate the station on a small rocky plateau located above a black sandy beach. Unloading began immediately and, on the 13th January 1957, a small ceremony was held to officially open the new station. It was named Davis " . . .to honour Captain John King Davis, a famous Antarctic navigator and captain . . . at present . . . living in Melbourne, a member of the ANARE Planning Committee". (Law's address on the day). After the ceremony, unloading recommenced and continued until the 20th January when the Kista Dan sailed. The Kista Dan made a return visit to Davis later dropping off dogs and one more expeditioner.

Bob Dingle, Alan Hawker, Nils Lied, Bill Lucas and Bruce Stinear made up the first party to winter in the Vestfold Hills. The party was not completely isolated however as Auster aircraft flew between Mawson and Davis several times that year exchanging personnel and supplies.

Davis was temporarily closed on the 25th January 1965 in order to make resources available for the rebuilding of Casey station. It was reopened on the 15th February, 1969 and has been continuously occupied since that time.

Davis has become the most important of Australia's Antarctic stations supporting a wide variety of scientific research in both the local and surrounding areas during the summer time. During the winter time, the principal research activity is Upper Atmospheric Physics.

[edit] Climate

Davis Station experiences a Polar climate:

**Climate Table**
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Mean daily maximum temperature (°C)	2.6	-1.3	-7.2	-11.8	-13.6	-13.6	-15.0	-15.6	-14.4	-10.0	-2.7	2.1	-8.4
Mean daily minimum temperature (°C)	-2.6	-7.3	-13.2	-17.3	-19.3	-19.5	-20.8	-21.7	-20.6	-16.4	-8.9	-3.2	-14.3
Mean daily sunshine (hours)	8.3	7.7	5.3	3.8	1.6	0.0	0.6	3.0	5.1	7.5	8.7	8.9	5.0
Mean number of cloudy days	16.0	13.3	13.8	11.9	10.5	9.6	10.6	10.9	11.7	13.2	14.4	15.7	151.5
Source: Bureau of Meteorology