‘Close Up’ visits the Antarctic

Press, 31 October 1984, Page 16

‘Close Up’ visits the Antarctic

The first Antarctic winter experienced by men drove two of them insane. The American polar hero, Admiral Richard Byrd, wrote of the Antarctic’s winter: “Any man who elects to inhabit such a spot must reconcile himself to enduring- the bitterest temperatures in nature, a long night as black as that on the dark side of the moon, and an isolation which no power on earth can lift for at least six months.” Even today, as “Close Up” found, the Antarctic is no place for the fainthearted. However, people still queue up to go there, volunteering often for much less money than could be earned

in New Zealand, to winterover. Every year, New Zealand selects 11 individuals of different skills, backgrounds and temperaments to live together at Scott Base for a year. When the summer scientific parties and support staff fly back to New Zealand in February those 11 are left behind, facing an enforced intimacy through four months of perpetual night with no chance of changing their minds and going home, marooned on the ice till the summer comes round again. It is an unusual experience. Some thrive on it, others crack up. No-one, they say, is completely unchanged.

In early October as the 1984 icemen were preparing to return to homes and families they last saw a year ago, the “Close Up” director, Chris Mitson, cameraman Bruce Dunn, sound recordist Russell Harper and reporter Phillip Melchior flew in to the McMurdo Sound ice runway. What they found in the New Zealand base forms a two-part “Close Up” item, which will begin screening on One tomorrow night. Next week, “Close Up” will continue its look at the Antarctic with an examination of the continent’s future, in a world hungry to exploit its potential treasure trove of oil and other minerals.