Karen Townrow – ANARE Club | Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions

Vale Karen Townrow

With sadness the Club announces the passing of Karen Townrow on 26 January 2026.

Station	Year	Season
Macquarie Island	1987-88	Summer
Macquarie Island	1988	Winter
Macquarie Island	1990-91	Summer

KT’s Macca work was the surveying of known pre ANARE sites, their partial excavation, documentation and interpretation, relating to the 19th century human activity on Macquarie Island, i.e. beginning in 1810: the industrial exploitation of Fur Seals for their pelts, and oil rendered from Elephant Seals and Penguins, plus the presence of members of Mawson’s Australian Antarctic Expedition, who lived and worked on Macquarie Island 1911-1913. KT authored several archaeological papers relating to Macquarie Island, one being “Survey and excavation of historic sites on Macquarie Island”, (Department of Lands, Parks and Wildlife Occasional paper No.20, 149pp, June 1989, ISBN 0 7246 2137 7.)

Post KT’s 90-91 Macca summer, back in Hobart, KT purchased the sailing yacht Pangea. With many stopovers, she slowly sailed her way up the East coast of Australia, KT’s friend Jenny Scott (Bio, Macca ’90 & many summers), was a Pangea crewmember for the crossing of Bass Strait.

In Queensland KT met Haydn, a chef, and they had a son, Hayden (aka HJ), who grew up on Pangea. For thirty plus years Karen lived aboard her beloved Pangea with Haydn, working at a variety of jobs including archaeological contract work, until succumbing to cancer on 26 January 2026, in Townsville after a five-year battle. During those five years she and Haydn still enjoyed their seasonal cruising lifestyle in between medical scans and checks etc, voyaging up and down the Qld-NSW coast and across to Darwin and return. In 2022-23 they bought a van, Treva, and enjoyed road trips into the interior in between cruising on Pangea.

– Notified by email from Neale Gentner, 30 July 2026

Obituary

Karen Townrow (aka KT)

Archaeologist with Department of Lands, Parks and Wildlife Tasmania (aka TASPAWS, aka Perks & Wildflowers), A.N.A.R.E. Macquarie Island 1987-88 summer, 1988 winter & 90-91 summer.

From Neale Gentner

Fairly early in KT’s “living the dream” voyages, in Brisbane, Pangea was pile-moored off the City Botanic Gardens, which due to some gossiping “moorons”, KT dubbed “Peyton Piles”. KT worked as a maid in a nearby 5 star city hotel (complete with maid’s uniform). At Gardens mooring and also later when slipped in Cabbage Tree Creek, Deagon, on weekends I helped KT with a lot of maintenance work on Pangea. I enjoyed sharing a few sailing weekends on Moreton Bay. In early/mid ‘90’s we both attended a Brisbane Midwinter dinner. For a short time while Pangea was slipped in Cabbage Tree Creek, KT stayed in my spare room at Redcliffe and commuted to Pangea in my old Holden WB panel-van, which for a week or so jolly, with a mattress in the back, KT also took herself on a road trip exploring Western Queensland. At Macca during 1990 I read several of KT’s archaeology papers which resided in the library, and in one paper KT related that she had excavated several unidentified objects which she described something like “a copper block attached to an iron shaft”, which upon my reading and seeing the images, I chuckled as I immediately recognized these tools as old-time soldering irons, sans their presumed rotted-away, heat-insulating, wooden-handles. Several years later, while helping KT work on Pangea, among many diverse jobs, I did some electrical wiring repairs which required soldering. KT had no soldering gear, or knowledge. At the “Peyton Piles” mooring I could have run extension leads over water and used a 240volt soldering iron. Instead I arrived with one of my grandfather’s old wood-handled soldering “bits”/”irons”, which I proceeded to heat on Pangea‘s galley stove and complete the task. As KT looked on and saw the antique, but still viable soldering tool, the penny dropped, and she was momentarily speechless! The solder repair using antique iron took less time than typing this description. I explained my reading of her Macca papers and demonstrated the process of soldering to KT and upon completion of the job, I gifted her my grandad’s iron and some soldering materials. Thereafter KT was able to do her own future soldering jobs, without the need for mains power, i.e. at sea if necessary. KT was completely blown away to learn the function of the Macca-excavated sealer’s tools and to own and use a tool exactly the same as she had excavated (except less corroded and with an intact wooden handle).

From Jenny Scott

KT had a wicked sense of humour, and I was on the receiving end of her practical jokes more than once. The best one was on Macquarie Island at the start of the 1991 summer. It was the second summer of my 16-month stint on the island, and I had been employed by TasPAWS as a tourist guide/ranger for the first series of tourist ships to visit the island. Bob Hamilton (Macca 1988, wintered with KT) was the head summer ranger, in charge of the land side of the tourist operations. He and KT (mainly KT) had conspired to play a devious trick on me. In our mail from the ship, which we received at the bar, I had a parcel from TasPAWS, rather to my surprise. Inside was a formal letter from the Director (written and signature forged by KT) telling me of my important responsibilities as a Tourist Ranger, and instructing me to wear the special uniform which was included in the package. Rather to my dismay, I unfolded a beige skirt with black belt and matching shirt, black armbands with TasPAWS cloth badges, a cap with TasPAWS logo, a white silk neck-scarf also with logo, and navy blue hair-ribbons (with instructions to tie my hair in neat pigtails). Well. I did have a lurking suspicion – it DID seem a bit odd – but dutifully went to the bar washroom/toilet and changed into this gear for the benefit of the masses. The resulting photo was really something to cringe about. KT thought it was HILARIOUS and I’d never seen her laugh so much. Everyone else did too… fortunately I only have a very poor-quality copy of the photo, so it is not included here. Left to the imagination. (The uniform promptly joined the large collection of dress-ups gear kept in Sealers Inn).

From Haydn Spencer

Karen and I met on Fraser Island, ” K’gari ” in 1995, we both left our jobs, me as a chef and Karen was with the ranger’s department taking guests on early morning bird watching and evening bat spotting and anything else that was required, we sailed for 3 months to arrive at Port Douglas, had to work again until the wet season is over, from there we decided to go north, we had a great time cruising, ended up in Weipa for a doctors appointment, when we found Karen was pregnant, they referred us to Gove, Nhulunbuy, where we stayed for 18 months, HJ was born 21 05 1997, after the all clear we travelled to Darwin then crossed the gulf to the Kimberley, from there in between stops, reaching Geraldton, staying 4 years, Karen was working for a catholic organisation, Centre Care, we had a refit of Pangea while we were juggling jobs and raising HJ, we finally left to head back east, back through the wonderful Kimberley coast, Christmas with fellow yachties at Lizard Island before we had to do our working time in Cairns and HJ’s schooling, HJ was 5 years old when we arrived in Cairns, so 13 years of work before HJ joined the Army, then Karen and I retired, cruising back to Darwin to see HJ when he was stationed there’.

Vale Karen Townrow

Obituary

Karen Townrow (aka KT)

Archaeologist with Department of Lands, Parks and Wildlife Tasmania (aka TASPAWS, aka Perks & Wildflowers), A.N.A.R.E. Macquarie Island 1987-88 summer, 1988 winter & 90-91 summer.

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