Australia's Antarctic icebreaker undergoes final preparations

At Hobart's Macquarie Wharf the RSV Nuyina is being loaded up as it prepares to make the long journey south. "We're all very excited to be underway, and we've been chatting to the team that's down at Davis station. They've been there for 12 months now, and they're pretty excited for us to turn up.” The ship will travel almost 5-thousand kilometres, bringing with it critical supplies and special treats for those spending the coming months on the icy continent. “We've definitely got a large quantity of ice cream, chocolate, coffee and of course the all essential toilet paper." There'll be 100 expeditioners on board including scientists involved in cleaning up legacy waste at Australia's Antarctic bases, and seabird ecologists keeping watch for the spread of avian influenza. "What you'll see heading off next week is the culmination of, in some cases, years of preparation, not only in terms of developing research programs, but also building really important national and international collaborations between research agencies” There'll also be a team of tradies heading down to Davis to conduct annual maintance and work on a new desalination plant. "Davis Station doesnt have a fresh water source so we need to produce fresh water using salt water via a desalination plant and then store that water for most of the year actually until we can produce water in a small window during summer." The trip to Davis is expected to take six weeks to complete. It's the first of four voyages planned for the Nuyina this Antarctic season, including the ship's first ever marine science voyage to the Denham Glacier in February next year.