Australia looking to Antarctic regulation

Press, 8 October 1987, Page 17

Australia looking to Antarctic regulation

OLIVER RIDDELL

la Wellington The Australian Government is looking at the regulation of aviation in Antarctica. • *.' This was revealed at a symposium on Antarctic studies organised by the Spanish association of Maritime sciences in Madrid. Mr lan Nicholson, Assistant Secretary of the Treaties and Sea Law branch of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the time for considering the regulation of aviation in Antarctica might be

approaching. There was also a need to consider harvesting ice and icebergs in Antarctica for fresh water, he said, Apart from scientists and formal expeditions in recent years, there had also been more and more visits by other people — including adventurers and tourists. This was inevitable and In many ways beneficial, Mr Nicholson said. The resultant growth in popular understanding of the Antarctic was to be welcomed. However, there were important questions of

international tew, of : the safety of dttoeaa, of mointerference with odeutiflc wort, and of pratec- -■ ered. ' • ■ Refining the present rules, and perhaps aftte a minerals . coavmton, devising tourism convention was desirable as part of the Antarctic Treaty System. Achieving a minerals' convention was important for .the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the system.