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NZ/US 50th anniversary photo gallery
Antarctic Partners - Book launch photo gallery
Washington Commemorations - photo gallery
January 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of New Zealand - United States cooperation in Antarctica. To celebrate this anniversary, Prime Minister Helen Clark and the Sir Edmund Hillary travelled to Scott Base and McMurdo Station with a US delegation that included Assistant Secretary of State Claudia McMurray, Director of the National Science Foundation Dr Arden Bement Jr, and US Ambassador HE William McCormick.
Further commemorations were held in Washington and Wellington in mid-2007, with the launch of a book celebrating the Antarctic partnership between the United States and New Zealand. Scott Base was opened on 20 January 1957 with considerable practical assistance from Admiral George Dufek, Commander of the American Deep Freeze operation at McMurdo Sound. Admiral Dufek proposed Scott Base’s current location at Pram Point to Sir Edmund Hillary and his party after it became apparent the originally proposed site at Butter Point was unsuitable. Since the late 1950s, New Zealand-United States Antarctic cooperation has spanned three main areas: scientific cooperation, logistical cooperation and cooperation in the Antarctic Treaty System.
New Zealand and US scientists are currently working together on a number of science projects, including: ANDRILL, the geological drilling programme to investigate ice sheet behaviour located on the Ross Ice Shelf near Scott Base; Surface Ozone Measurement conducted at Arrival Heights to understand the global dynamics and chemistry of ozone; Ice Coring in the Southern Alps and Victoria Land Antarctica to understand past climate patterns in both regions; and, the Latitudinal Gradient Project documenting recent environmental changes in Antarctica.
Under an Exchange of Notes in 1958 New Zealand agreed to make available certain facilities in New Zealand requested by the United States authorities in connection with US activities in Antarctica. The United States in turn agreed to provide logistics support in connection with New Zealand operations in Antarctica. This formed the basis for the joint logistics pool. Dr Karl Erb, Head of the US National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, was recently awarded an honorary New Zealand Antarctic Medal for his outstanding service in support of the New Zealand Antarctic Programme.
The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty designates Antarctica as a “natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”. New Zealand and the United States work closely together in the Antarctic Treaty System, which has kept Antarctica peaceful for over fifty years. New Zealand and the US developed the McMurdo Dry Valleys Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA), which was agreed by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in 2004 as ASMA No.2.
The commemorative book, Antarctic Partners: 50 Years of United States and New Zealand Cooperation in Antarctica, 1957-2007, by Neville Peat, was launched by the Governor General on 22 June 2007 at Government House in Wellington. The New Zealand Embassy in Washington DC launched the book in the United States on 27 June 2007 at the National Geographic Society. The book is available in New Zealand bookstores and is co-published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Phantom House Publishing (external link to Phantom House website).
Photo gallery
"A partnership well worth celebrating" is how Sir Edmund Hillary summed up the way New Zealand and The United states have worked together in Antarctica over the 50 years since their stations were established on Ross Island in the Ross Sea region south of New Zealand. Sir Edmund, the leading figure at the outset of the partnership in the 1956-57 summer, described the partnership as "unique" among the 28 nations active today in the world's coldest, windiest, highest, driest, loneliest and last-discovered continent.
This book is a richly illustrated and at times dramatic account of the dynamics of NewZealand-United States cooperation in Antarctica - the way people get to and from Antarctica by air and sea, the day-to-day reality of living and conducting science in a frozen desert, diplomatic links through the Antarctic Treaty System, the need for search-and-rescue capability, and the extraordinary collaboration between Antarctic scientists from the two nations.
The history of the partnership is traced from that first summer - when United States Rear Admiral George Dufek and Sir Edmund cemented a productive friendship - to the present day.
New Zealand's Scott Base, a compact cluster of buildings, was erected just three kilometres/two miles from McMurdo Station, America's main base in Antarctica and the continent's only 'town'. They are genial and accommodating neighbours in the least hospitable place on Earth.
Of all the nations active in Antarctica, the United States and New Zealand are by far the most closely linked. Americans and New Zealanders have been working side by side for 50 years, with their bases on Ross Island - McMurdo Station and Scott Base - separated by only a couple of miles. In New Zealand's South Island, the city of Christchurch and its port, Lyttelton are the main staging points for American aircraft and ships heading to and from Antarctica.
The two nations developed close working relations from the very start. I happen to know this because I was there, leading the Ross Sea party of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which established Scott Base in January 1957. Scott Base had a second purpose, as the headquarters for the New Zealand scientific effort during the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year (IGY). The United States set up McMurdo Station to be its main base for IGY science in Antarctica, with Rear Admiral George Dufek in command of Operation Deep Freeze.
We were a different and much smaller expedition, but the relationship was brotherly. I definitely had the feeling that George Dufek was one of us, and with his support we had access to the resources at McMurdo Station if we needed them. It is wonderful to see that kind of collaboration continuing.
Antarctica is a challenging place to explore and research. You need to be well organised and well equipped for such an extreme environment. Quite simply, Antarctica drives people together, and there is no better example of this than the unique relationship between the United States and New Zealand Antarctic Programmes.
Over the years, New Zealand and the United States have been at the forefront of Antarctic activity, not only in terms of exploration and scientific research but also in the international arena through the leadership the two countries have demonstrated in the Antarctic treaty System.
