Survey report 1993/94 Australian Antarctic Division Author - J.Hyslop / AUSLIG

Taken from sections of the report:

Casey 1993-94
Aerial Photography
Macquarie Island

Plans were made to photograph Macquarie Island if time and weather permitted. The camera equipment was stored in an E container on the deck. Flight plans were prepared to fly the whole of the Island at 3000 metres and at 2500 metres and over the station at 100 metres.

Before arriving at Macquarie Island, Adam and I spoke to John Brooks about our requirements for aerial photography. John explained that the plan was to unload expeditioners and luggage, move down the island to unload the huts, then return to Buckles Bay to unload 24 tonnes of equipment. He said that if all this went well then one helicopter could be released for aerial photography.

Adam and I then gave a briefing to the pilots on the camera navigation system.

Expeditioners and luggage were put ashore on Monday 25th and cargo operations continued through Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately the weather was not good and there were many breaks due to poor visibility and wind.

At midday Wednesday as the last of the sling loads were going ashore the weather cleared with a cloud ceiling of 20,000 feet. As this was a rare opportunity I made a last plea to John Brooks to delay the departure to allow us to fly the aerial photography. This request was denied. The weather soon deteriorated to low cloud covering the hills. By the time we would have set up the camera gear the cloud would have been too low to fly.

Casey
Black and White
Penguin count

The penguin count photography was flown on December 1st. All photography was flown at 500 metres.

Geologists requests
Nick Post requested black and white photography over selected areas of the Windmill Islands. These requests were translated into a flight plan. One date was allocated for the black and white photography and not all areas requested could be covered in time.

Further information about bathymetry, GPS, surveys of buildings and structures, geoids, control points, etc are available in the report.