Cool investment

14 October 2016

The Australian Government will provide $50 million for a new research station on Macquarie Island, the only base between Australia and the Antarctic.

The station at the Isthmus of Macquarie Island.
image: published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

The new station will support the collection of international weather data and the monitoring of radioactive and nuclear activity, including by the Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.

The existing research station will be closed, but its activities will continue until the new station is fully operational in 2021-22.

According to the Government, the new station will be the most advanced of its type in the Southern Ocean, and have minimal environmental impact, lower operating and maintenance costs.

The investment will be in addition to the $2.2 billion the Government is investing as part of its Australian Antarctic Strategy and 20 Year Action Plan.

Located around 1500 kilometres from Tasmania and 1300 kilometres from Antarctica, just north of the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone, Macquarie Island is an important global monitoring location for scientific research, including monitoring southern hemisphere weather and climatic data.

More information: www.environment.gov.au