| Guest Barry Antarctica> Good Morning! It's a glorious morning here we were experiencing a blizzard for the last 2 days and today it is sunny clear and -12 degrees. |
| Melinda> Hello Barry, there are 50 year 6 children crammed into our library to talk to you. |
| Melinda> Our first question - which station are you at Barry? We are so excited to be talking to you today! |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> I am at Casey Station, one of 3 Australian stations - the others are Maewson amd Davis. |
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| Melinda> How close have you been able to get to the animals in Antarctica? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The protocol (rules) dont allow us any closer than 5 metres from penguins and if they are nesting the distances are further away. |
| BackSS4> i would like 2 go 2 Antarctica to c the penguin, james |
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| BackSS4> The Penguins are really cute! |
| BackSS4> How is Christmas celebrated in Antartica? |
| BroadbeachSS3> What kind of food do you eat on Christmas? |
| BackSS2> How do you celebrate Christmas there? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> Over winter we only had 14 people here now the summer has arrived there are around 60 persons on the station so we will have a fantastic christmas with a lot of new people to share conversation and all the wonderful food our chef prepares. |
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| BackSS4> That looks like a great feast! |
| Melinda> Barry, are you missing your family? How long have you been in the Antarctica so far? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> I have been here in Antarctica since October last year so that is around 13-14 months. |
| BackSS4> Do you have family members in Antarctica? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> I have a wife who is a teacher in NSW and 4 beautiful boys back home. |
|
| GympieSS4> Thats a pretty funny picture of a walrus! |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> All the wildlife is beautiful even those bug elephant seals. |
| BackSS2> Do you have any pets with you in Antartica? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We don't have pets as such here, we do however enjoy sitting down and watching from a distance all the wonderful animals, penguins, birds, seals and the very occasional whale. |
| BackSS2> Have you ever seen any animals being attacked or any thing? |
| Yasmin> hi my name is Yasmin and i want to know what do you eat in Antartica? |
| GympieSS4> Barry, how do you get food? |
| Joyce Li and Amber> How do you get your food? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> All our food is delivered once a year and kept FROZEN, we do have a small hydroponics shed where we grow fresh lettuce and tomatoes. |
| Julianne> Barry - I wondered how you got the lovely fresh lettuce in the photos! |
| Krystah> How often do you get sunlight? |
| ALEX> Barry, how long does a day last for? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> Over winter we have nearly 24 hours of night, now summer is approaching the days are getting longer and we are now having sunrise at 2:30am and sunset at 10:30pm. |
| ALEX> Barry what makes the the glow in the sky? |
| CapricorniaSDE1> Are there southern lights and do you see them? |
| Harry> Hi I'm Harry and I was wondering if you see the southern lights? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> During winter when it is dark we do see the Southern lights which are called the Auroras Australis and they are spectactular and last for hour! |
|
| Tatiana> Do you snow fight? |
| Michael> What sort of food do you eat on Christmas? |
| Alex,Gabriel,Cody> What food do you eat? |
| Alex,Gabriel,Cody> Do you have Christmas trees? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We do put up a Christmas tree, make ice sculptures, have snow fights eat lots of wonderful chocolates and fantastic dinners. |
|
| Joyce Li and Amber> How do you go to the toilet? |
| Tia> Hello Barry, do have a toilet? is the water frozen? |
| Josh> How do you go to the toilet in Antarctica? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> Whilst on station we have normal toilet facilities, but when we are off station we have to bring all our waste back to the station for disposal, that icludes all toilet waste - the photo shows the drum and plastic bag needed when using the toilets. |
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| Alex,Gabriel,Cody> How freezing is the toilet? |
| Vera.F> Can you ski after your days work? that would be lots of fun. |
| Josh> What snow sport do you play on christmas? |
| Alex,Gabriel,Cody.> Do you play sports? |
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| Guest Barry Antarctica> After work and on the weekends a few of us tend to go out skiing. |
| Melinda> Barry, what is your job on Antarctica? |
| Joyce Li and Amber> Do you work? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> My job here is an electrician, I look after all things electrical including the powerhouse generators and heating and lighting. |
| Alex,Gabriel,Cody> How is Chrismas in Antartica? |
| Jack> Do you have a chef??????????? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The chef spends weeks preparing and storing all the food ready for the day, we also have fun and do some christmas carol singing too. |
| |
| BackSS4> Is that a nice tasting house? |
| BackSS2> That ginger bread house looks great !!!!!!!!! |
| Jack> MMMMM ginger bread! |
| Alex,Gabriel,Cody> Does Santa come to your houses? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> If we are lucky santa even visits us on his skidoo driven sleigh! |
| |
| BackSS4> How often do u get mail? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We get mail once maybe twice a year during summer when the ship arrives with new scientists. |
| krystah> Hi my name is Krystah and i would like to know what other holidays do you celebrate in Antartica? |
| Harley Willis Michae> What other celebrations do you celebrate other than Christmas? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The other big occasion we celebrate down here is Mid winter 22nd June (the Winter Solstice) when it is the darkest for the longest. |
| Melinda> How are you coping with the cold weather? Have you suffered any frost bite yet? |
| Tatiana> What do you wear in Antarctia? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We try to dress correctly to prevent frostbite although we some times experience a milder form called frost nip where a shirt collar or ear may get exposed during riding skidoos for any length of time. |
|
| GympieSS3> hi Barry, how cold is it? |
| GympieSS4> Hey Barry, how cold is it in Antarctica? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The coldest temperature we had here on station over Winter was -37.5 degrees. |
| ALEX> How low can it get? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> Up on the plateau away from the warming influence of the sea it can get up to -40 or more or greater! |
| BackSS4> Have u seen any avalanches yet? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> On station here we don't have the high mountains so we dont have avalanches, we do however have other dangers such as sea ice cliffs and crevasses (cracks in the glaciers). |
| Harley Willis Michae> If an avalanche occurs what do you do to protect yourself? |
| BackSS4> Do u have a pic of an avalanche? |
| Harley Willis Michae> Do you build igloos as well like in Northen Canada and the North Pole? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We do survival training which involves building igloos and sleeping outside on the ice. |
| |
| BackSS4> That would be freezing... sleeping in the ice! |
| Jackson> Hi Barry, do you have to wear snow boots or other appropriate shoes? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We wear large snow boots, quiled pants and jackets neck warmers, gloves, balaclavas and snow goggles. |
| BackSS4> Are inside the houses cold or warm? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We maintain the inside building temperatures at around 18 degrees just like back home. |
| ALEX> Barry how thick is the ice? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The sea ice can be up to 1 metre thick near the station and on land the snow ice accumalation over the thousands of years has been measured up to 1 - 2 kilometers thick! |
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| BackSS4> What is the helicopter doing? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The helocopters are brought down on the icebreaker ship and are here for the 8 months summer maintainance / science season and are used to resupply the station with food and equipment as well as supporting the scientist in work out further in the field. |
| Joyce Li and Amber> Whats your favourite thing there? |
| BackSS4> Do u like your job? |
| BackSS1> Is it beautiful over in Antarctica? |
| BackSS1> R u enjoying it over in Antarctica? |
| Joyce Li and Amber> Is down there fun? |
| Harley Willis Michae> What's your favourite thing about residing in Antarctica? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> Everything down here is great, the mates, food, wildlife and scenery but most of all the silence and clean air! |
| Michael> Can you drive on ice? |
| Jackson> Barry did you fly to Antarctica or did you go by boat? |
| Alex,Gabriel,Cody> What transport do you use? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The transport we use here is a few utes around station and skidoos, quad motorbikes and Hagglund snow mobiles for use out on the sea ice or up and down the snow and ice in the field. |
| |
| Jack> Look a fishing boat! |
| BackSS2> How long is the boat? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The icebreaker ship is over 100m long and can plough through sea ice up to 1.3 metres thick. |
| BackSS1> Do u want to come home? |
| Melinda> How much longer are you staying there? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The 14 of us that were here over the past 14 months will be leaving here in 4 weeks time and heading back to Australia by boat arriving at Fremantle on New Years Eve. |
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| BackSS1> That looks cold! |
| Melinda> Do you make more money as an electrician in Antarctica than working in Australia? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The wages we get here are slightly better than back in Australia but most of us are here for the beauty rather than the money. |
| Jack> Is the ice melting? |
| Harley Willis Michae> What have scientists discovered about Antarctica? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> The scientist here are comparing data from pristine environments to that of Australia. |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> They are also looking at how climate change (global warming) is going to affect the sea levels in the future. |
| Melinda> Do you get to have holidays? How long are they for? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We dont get any holidays except for the odd day off and Sundays if nothing has broken down. |
| Harley Willis Michae> Are they many Chrismas trees around the Antarctic? |
| HARRY.C> Do you have many tree's? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> There are no trees down here, the tallest green thing here is the moss which grows around 2cms high. |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> So no there are no trees. |
| ALEX> How do you breathe with out trees? |
| Melinda> Is there a time limit on how long you can stay there or can you stay as long as you want? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We can stay longer if we want, some have chosen to stay on for the rest of summer - that would mean being here for 20 months. |
| HARRY.C> Do you ever ice skate? |
| Harley Willis Michae> What sport do you play the most? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We play a few sports although over winter there was only 14 of us - we play vollyball at night, skiing and the occasional ice hole fishing. |
| BackSS2> Christmas in antartica sounds really fun! |
| ALEX> Barry do you have tv and dvds? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> We don't have tv, we do have an extensive DVD/Video collection and wonderful old 16mm reel to reel movies which we watch on Wed and Sunday nights. |
| Harley Willis Michae> How do you cope without shops and television? |
| Guest Barry Antarctica> How do I cope without tv or shops? I think it is great! |
| Julianne> OK everyone - we only have 2 or 3 minutes left with Barry - could you thank him and tell him what you like best about the chat? Thanks. |
| Melinda> Thankyou Barry, we loved the pictures! |
| BackSS2> Thankyou Barry, it was really good hearing and seeing pictures of your life? |
| HARRY.C> Thanks Barry it was really interesting, I learnt alot! |
| Vera.F> I really enjoyed learing about how different some of the things we do but then some things are so simlar. |
| Harley Willis Michae> Thank you Barry for teaching us so much. We have learned that you're an electrician for heating and other things. |
| Krystah> Thank you Barry, I learnt that you can live without tv. |
| Alex,Gabriel,Cody.> Thank you,we have learnt alot about Antartica and my favourite thing about Antartica is your transport. |
| Julianne> Barry - On behalf of all of the Qld students thank you so much for all of your time and wonderful photos you shared! |
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