Macquarie Island Sealed Roads

Thirty-two years ago I, along with nineteen other Antarctic Division expeditioners, wintered on Macquarie Island. To keep ourselves amused, I chose to create and edit a magazine which I called, tongue-in-cheek, "Sealed Roads." There are, of course, no roads on MacQuarie. There are plenty of seals however: elephant seals, leaopard seals, fur seals, and the occassional weddel - hence the magazine's name.

Its first edition started a craze and, before long, the Officer in Charge (O.I.C.) Rod Ledingham, began to issue Macquarie Drivers Licences. They looked very official, bearing various stamps, and a photograph and description of each licence holder. I still have mine somewhere. From memory, it said I was licenced to drive Ferguson tractors, bull elephant seals up to three tons in weight, and various species of penguins.

The three most common species of seal on Macquarie Island are Elephants, Fur, and Leopards. Occasionally a Weddel will drop by, or even Sea Lion, but it is the Elephant seals that virtually overflow the place in the Southern Hemisphere's Spring. This is when the bulk of the females come ashore. This is when the bulls, many of whom came a month or so earlier, fight for the right to rule a harem. This is when the roads are not only 'sealed roads' but often become the battle grounds of gory and bloody fighting.

In the deep winter, when the sun goes early and it's dark by 3 p.m, it can be quite hazardous to wander outside of the base camp's perimeter. Stout fences have been erected to keep those three and four ton bull elephants away from the camp proper. Also, the areas the expeditioners traverse in these darkened hours a flood-light lit. But venture too far away from that light, and outside of the camp, one could suddenly come across a large mound of living flesh in the form of a bull elephant seal. Not a pleasant experience.

Despite their numbers and their size, Elephant Seals can be readily avoided. Generally, they are not aggressive towards humans. There are exceptions to this. A large bull guarding his harem is not to be fooled with. He will lumber towards you. That's the time to use discretion rather than valour. But often, by holding up an object higher than the seal can raise his own head to, for example, using an open umbrella held high, a Elephant Seal will back off. With them 'Size does matter' a anything higher than them is bigger than them, in their way of thinking.

It so happened that word must have got out somehow. Now I don't know whether you're aware of it or not, but MacQuarie is supposedly administered by a Tasmanian council. This probably dated right back to the old sealing and whaling days. Anyway, the relief ship, Thala Dan drops off a letter. It's addressed to our O.I.C. Would you believe it- it's a land-rates bill! They want us to pay up. If we don't, we'll be taken to court.

Our O.I.C thought for a while, then penned a reply for me to send off via our radio room. Here's what he said: "You fix our roads, we'll pay our rates."

We never heard from them again.

I hope you enjoyed this little tale about MacQuarie Island - Sealed Roads.

Be happy.