Vale Ian Johnstone

Station Year Season
Casey 1982 Winter
Macquarie Island 1983 Winter
Casey 1985 Winter

The ANARE Club is sad to advise that Ian Johnstone passed away on 12 February 2024.

(Notified by David Pottage on 21 February 2024)

Ian Johnstone (29/1/1955 – 12/2/2024)

Ian’s wife Jo posted the following on Facebook:

Ian, my husband and father to Gill and Keely passed away in the Townsville hospital on Monday 12th February. He was diagnosed with MDS a form of blood cancer and was told he would have a couple of years before he would require treatment. With this in mind we bought boat number 3, Inouk, and left the Sunshine Coast in April 2023 to sail the Queensland coast and beyond.

Unfortunately the MDS rapidly became very aggressive and true to style for Ian it was one of the rare types.

Ian had an adventurous life growing up on Cocos Island, being sent off to the Navy at the age of 15, spending almost 5 years in Antarctica, mineral exploration in WA and the NT, working for various government departments and of course sailing the oceans.

His greatest loves were his family and sailing.

We will miss his silliness and his sense of fun, his positivity, his can-do attitude, his intellect, his generosity, imagination and of course his love.

Jo, Gill and Keely.

Ian Johnstone (29/1/1955 – 12/2/2024)

Observer in the Bureau of Meteorology Casey 1982; Macquarie Island 1983; Casey 1985

From David Pottage

Ian was an Observer in the Bureau of Meteorology in the 1980s and did 3 Antarctic winters. Casey 1982 was his first and just before he was due to complete his year and head home an Observer on Macquarie Island had to return home for personal reasons, so Ian volunteered to replace him as the ship was calling into Macca on way home from Casey. On his return from Macca he applied for the 1985 winter. He and I planned to winter together at Mawson. However Ian was given the Senior Observer position at Casey and me at Mawson, so we were unable to winter together.

Ian was an excellent Observer and a great bloke with loyalty and kindness to boot. His untimely death was a great shock, and he will be sadly missed.