The Icebird is a cargo vessel which delivers supplies to the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) bases, principally Macquarie Island, Mawson, Casey and Davis Stations.

Billed by her builders as the world's first purpose-built polar resupply vessel, the Icebird was custom made for Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) by Antarktis und Spezialfahrt Schiffartsgesellschaft GmbH (GSS) in Germany.

Due to the large-scale rebuilding program underway at Australia's stations, the Australian Antarctic Division needed to increase the cargo space available to transport building materials.

Icebird's ability to carry containers enabled the rebuilding program to switch over to the AANBUS modular construction that is so characteristic of ANARE's continental stations today.

It was clamped to the ship in front of the bridge and was secured with bolts," according to an interview with John Whitelaw and Annie Rushton, ANARE Jubilee Project, 21 August 1995.