Wilkes Station

[1] Wilkes was one of seven bases that the United States built for the IGY, which also included McMurdo, Hallett, Admundsen-Scott (South Pole Station), Ellsworth, Byrd, and Little America.

[2] Personnel from the United States Navy constructed the main part of Wilkes in a period of 16 days in January and February 1957, unloading 11,000 tons of material and supplies.

[4] Wilkes features a series of storage dumps and a considerable amount of waste resulting from 12 years of occupation, including approximately 7000 fuel and oil drums.

In early 1988, the Australian Army's 17th Construction Squadron deployed Lieutenant Andrew Stanner to Wilkes Station, Antarctica in order to develop an environmental clean-up plan to remove, make safe or dispose of a large accumulation of rubbish, fuel in drums, explosives, chemicals and gas cylinders deposited since the late 1950s.

The plan was subsequently carried out over a period of years for the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions by a series of detachments from the squadron.

Wilkes Station, 1957
1988 photo shows diesel oil drums in the foreground, oil spill is visible on the left in the middle distance, the Icebird (ship) is visible at anchor in Vincennes Bay . The new Casey Station is visible on the skyline at the left of the photo in the distance across the bay.
Photograph shows a partially destroyed explosive satchel used for ice acoustic analysis. A large number of similar satchels were distributed over an area estimated at 1000m square after a prior failed attempt to destroy old explosives.
Photograph shows a number of discarded hydrogen gas cylinders used for meteorological analysis at Wilkes Station in the late 1950s and early 1960s.