Australia’s icebreaker RSV Nuyina has left Hobart on the first voyage of the Antarctic season, with plant, machinery and personnel on board to start major infrastructure works at Davis research station.
The ship is carrying 90 passengers and total cargo of over 950 tonnes, including two helicopters, food and equipment to resupply the station for the year ahead.
More than half of that is cargo and equipment for the Antarctic Infrastructure Renewal Project (AIRP), which will upgrade or replace key station buildings at Davis over the next six years as part of the $272.5m Davis Critical Infrastructure Works.
AIRP cargo includes a containerised pump house and a reverse osmosis plant, two excavators and two six-wheelers.
Photo: Simon Payne
RSV Nuyina will take about eight days to get from Hobart to the first stop-off point – around 80 nautical miles from Casey research station – where critical cargo will be flown off by helicopter.
The ship will then continue to Davis research station, breaking ice to reach its static position about one kilometre from station buildings.
The helicopters may fly off earlier, with personnel on board to help set the station up for resupply. Wintering expeditioners at Davis will be given the chance to get flu and covid shots before the rest of the expeditioners arrive.
“The start of the season has its own momentum and this voyage is special because we’re actually breaking ice to get to Casey and Davis,” Voyage Leader Christine Macmillian said.
“We head south and within four days we’ll be in the ice and surrounded by icebergs.
“It is such an amazing environment to be in, and there’s so much going on, I can’t imagine anyone getting bored.”
DAVIS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS
This is the first significant work carried out at Davis by the Antarctic Infrastructure Renewal Alliance (AIR Alliance), the design and build consortium put together to deliver Davis Critical Infrastructure Works.
The AIR Alliance will have 21 people at Davis this summer. Some are heading south on RSV Nuyina. Others will fly down when the ice runway at Wilkins opens, or go in via the US station, McMurdo.
“A huge amount of work has gone into preparing for this season, and it’s been a real team effort across the project,” Antarctic Infrastructure Renewal Project Director, Josephine Gorring, said.
“Seeing the equipment packed, loaded and ready to head south makes it feel very real, and we’re excited to start delivering the first infrastructure works at Davis.”
AIR Alliance Construction Manager, Jean-Baptiste Donadieu de Lavit, is one of those travelling to Davis on RSV Nuyina for the summer.
“After more than a year of preparation, I’m very excited to start – to pour concrete, mix grout, erect some steel. We have a lot of talent and experience in our expeditioner team for the 2026–27 season, and I’m confident we’ll get a lot done,” he said.
“Above all, safety is our top priority and we will reinforce safe work practices and culture every day. We’re also committed to supporting station culture and integrating as one station team under our station leader.”
The main objective for the AIR Alliance this summer is building new water production facilities, including a new pump house with seawater intake and a new reverse osmosis plant near the station’s tarn.
Sitewide reticulation services will link these facilities to the rest of the station.
The AIR Alliance will also start earthworks for a new utility building and foundations for the old living quarters.
Construction of the utility building, which will house the new main powerhouse and workshops, will start in late 2027.
The Davis Critical Infrastructure Works are expected to be completed in 2032.
THE YEAR AHEAD FOR DAVIS
With her Davis stint, incoming Davis Station Leader Bec Jeffcoat will have led all Australia’s Antarctic stations, and Macquarie Island, through winter.
She will have a large, varied community to manage.
“We’re not just preparing Davis for the coming year, we’re helping shape the station for decades to come,” Ms Jeffcoat said.
“It’s exciting to have the opportunity to be part of something that will make a lasting impression on Australia’s Antarctic Program.
“How we set up in the first year will have impact for the life of the project.”
Ms Jeffcoat said one of her greatest challenges would be bringing expeditioners, scientists, tradespeople and the construction team together as one cohesive station community.
“Different roles, different backgrounds, but my plan is that we will be one team with a collective purpose,” she said.
SCIENCE PRIORITIES IN 2026-27
Science priorities for the Australian Antarctic Program this summer range from site remediation and moss surveys to ice core collection high on the Antarctic plateau.
A remediation scientist is going into Davis with the AIR Alliance team to conduct human health and ecological risk assessments in the construction footprint through soil and water sampling.
The scientist will then travel on to Casey to lead the A Cleaner Antarctica Program, which works to remediate human impacts within the Australian Antarctic Territory.
This year, the team will be completing a 25-year package of bioremediation work, returning precious Antarctic soil once impacted by hydrocarbon fuel spills to the environment at safe concentrations for the marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
A team of five scientists will also be based at Law Base, a deep field camp in the Larsemann Hills – about 80 kilometres from Davis.
The scientists, from Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF) and Geoscience Australia, will spend six weeks doing drone surveys and vegetation, geological, and biodiversity mapping. The Law Base project will investigate the sensitivity of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to past climate change and how Antarctic terrestrial life persisted through periods of ice-sheet advance and retreat, as well as human impacts on ice-free environments.
At Dome C North, on the Antarctic plateau, the Million Year Ice Core team will continue extracting ice cores that will eventually provide a climate record dating back a million years. This year, they’re expecting to reach about 1000m.
“This season the drilling will move into a part of the ice sheet known as the brittle zone,” AAD Chief Scientist Nerilie Abram said.
“The ice here is under a lot of strain, making it harder to drill and to extract as a complete core. It will be a test for the Australian-built deep drill system and for the team working at our inland station at Dome C North.”
A team of ecologists will work in the Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) near Casey, studying its moss and lichen communities – some of the richest in Antarctica outside the Antarctic Peninsula. Two seabird ecologists will also work from Casey later in the season.
Every time RSV Nuyina makes the journey south to resupply a station, it takes samples and measurements along the way.
“This year Nuyina will swing back to the Denman Glacier region to pick up a mooring we left there during the Denman Marine Voyage in 2025, which has been measuring ocean conditions over the subsequent years” Professor Abram said.
“It’ll also pick up a kombi mooring that was dropped off the Tasmanian coast by the CSIRO’s research vessel RV Investigator earlier this year.
“This test is an important step in getting new technologies ready for our major campaign to study krill next summer.”
The ship is expected to return from the Davis resupply voyage in late November.
