4 Grahame Budd; David Carstens, et al., ‘Obituaries: Dr Jon Stephenson’, ANARE Club Journal Aurora, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 20-23, and Stephen Hicks’ ‘Obituary Philip Jan Stephenson’, Polar Record, published online 22 September 2011.
Budd returned to Heard Island in January 1965 in a party of nine led by Warwick Deacock to climb Big Ben and to carry out a scientific program. On the 25th of the same month, five members – including Deacock and Budd – reached the summit.5 David Carstens, another Queenslander, first visited Antarctica in 1961, and then wintered at Mawson station in 1962 when extensive fieldwork was undertaken. An autumn vehicle traverse led by Frederick
Lucas established a depot halfway to the Amery Ice Shelf in support of a planned spring traverse to the Ice Shelf. Carstens led a three-man dog sledging party that left the station on 9 September and established the position of Church Mountain and Mount Kennedy by astrofix. Within days of returning to Mawson, David led another party in mid-October to establish a heavy vehicle route to the Amery Ice Shelf and to undertake survey and glaciological work. It was the first time the Ice Shelf had been visited over surface, except for a dogsledging visit to Jetty Peninsula in 1956. Mapping of the western margin of the Ice Shelf was carried out using a snow-track vehicle and the Amery Ice Shelf party of eight men returned to Mawson in mid-January 1963. 5 Tim Bowden, ‘Heard Island: The Climbing of Big Ben’. Aurora, Vol. 30, No. 3, March 2011, p. 12.
Since 1947, such ships as the Wyatt Earp, Kista Dan, Thala Dan, Nella Dan, Icebird, Polar Star and the Aurora Australis have taken in excess of 300 expeditioners from Queensland appointed as administrative, maintenance and scientific members of ANARE to Macquarie Island, Heard Island, Mawson, Davis, Wilkes and Casey. A number of them as well as the polar pioneers mentioned above have been recipients of the Polar Medal and other prestigious awards. Although at first glance it would seem unlikely that a company in Queensland’s south-east corner could participate in the exploration and scientific research of Antarctica, Forgacs
Cairncross Dockyard in Brisbane has, in April 2005 and more recently in September 2011, played an important role in the maintenance and upkeep of Australia’s polar flagship – the Aurora Australis.6 Anna Bemrose
6 The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), David Carstens, Forgacs Cairncross Dockyard, Brisbane and Syd Kirkby provided additional data and photographic contributions for this article.
Big Ben assault, 1963. From L to R: Jon Stephenson, Grahame Budd and Warwick Deacock (Photo: Alan Gilchrist, ©Australian Antarctic Division). | Aurora Australis in drydock, Brisbane 2011 (Photo: Forgacs Cairncross, Brisbane).
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Crab-Eater Seals, Peterman Island, Antarctic Peninsula.
J (Jon) Stephenson (1930-2011). In 1956, Jon along with Ken Blaiklock and Hal Dog team Enderby Land traverse 1960 Lister wintered (Photo: Ric Ruker). over at South Ice — the advance base for the TAE located on the polar plateau approximately 500 miles from the South Pole. Throughout the winter they were confronted with -50ºC conditions and 24-hour darkness. Jon and Ken were assigned to work out a safe route for the tractor train. Driving their two dog teams ahead of the Sno-Cats they constructed snow cairns to identify the route. At one point, Jon narrowly avoided death when he fell through a snow bridge. Stephenson and Blaiklock became the first people since Amundsen to drive dogs teams to the South Pole. Five years later Jon returned to the Antarctic in an attempt to make the first ascent of the 2745-metre-high ice-covered active volcano Big Ben on Heard Island with Warwick Deacock and Grahame Budd, who had already been the medical officer and OIC on Heard during 1954-55. ‘The very arduous conditions encountered resulted in having to pull back from the attempt just 500 metres below the peak… Five days of blizzard engulfed their tent and left the party short of food. They had to abandon their tent and endure an arduous threeday descent to Long Beach, spending five days in makeshift shelter before returning to the Atlas Cove base.4