Ice breakers – 50 years of women in Antarctica (AAD)

Fifty years ago, on 19 January 1976, four women arrived at Casey aboard Thala Dan to become the first women to visit a continental station as part of ANARE.  They were Antarctic Division staff Jutta Hosel, Shelagh Robinson and Elizabeth Chipman, all prominent ANARE Club Members.  Also aboard was Dr Zoe Gardner, on her way to Macquarie Island, to become the first woman to winter with ANARE.

Earlier, in 1961, Nel Law had become the first Australian woman to set foot in Antarctica, although it was not considered an ‘official’ visit.  Rather than a member of ANARE, Nel was a guest of the Danish shipping company J. Lauritzen. The first women to travel with ANARE to the sub-Antarctic Macquarie island were Isobel Bennett, Mary Gillham, Hope Macpherson, and Susan Ingham on Thala Dan in 1959.  Throughout the summers of the 1960s and early 1970s women had continued to visit Macquarie Island with ANARE.

Jutta Hosel

Shelagh Robinson

Elizabeth Chipman

Dr Zoe Gardner

See the Australian Antarctic Division’s celebration article “Ice breakers – 50 years of women in Antarctica“, that includes a series of firsts for ANARE women, updated here from ANARE Club records:

• 1971 – First woman to join the ANARE Club – Elizabeth Chipman (Macquarie Is 67 Summer, Macquarie Is 72 Summer, Casey 76 Summer)
• 1976 – Medical Officer Dr Zoe Garder winters on Macquarie Island
• 1981 – First woman to winter in Antarctica, Medical Officer Dr Louise Holliday at Davis.
• 1982 – Medical Officer Dr Julie Campbell winters in Antarctica – first woman winterer at Mawson.
• 1983 – First female scientist to winter at Macquarie Island – Peta Kelsey
• 1985 – First female scientists to winter in Antarctica, at Mawson – Peta Kelsey and Gina Price
• 1985 – Communications Officer – Denise Jones first woman winterer at Casey
• 1988 – First female tradesperson in Antarctica – painter Kay Grist summered at Casey.
• 1989 – First women to win the Antarctic Medal – Dr Lynn Williams and Denise Allen
• 1989 – First female Station Leader on Macquarie Island – Alison Clifton
• 1989 – First female Antarctic Station Leader – Diana Patterson, at Mawson

Sources:

• Australian Antarctic Division
• ANARE Club
• Chipman, Women on the Ice, 1986