From the outback to the ends of the earth: the NT farmer working at Antarctica's Wilkins Runway
Updated
Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest of all the continents, the conditions are extreme and not for the faint-hearted.
For the most part the people who work in the Antarctic, like former Northern Territory beef farmer Franz Ranacher, embrace the adventure.
"I spent 25 years in the outback, it really grows on you, that's probably why I'm here, it's a bit isolated, station life all over again but a lot colder," Mr Ranacher said.
Mr Ranacher hails from the infamous Bullo River Station in the Northern Territory.
"It was a great time up there, it was really nice, the whole outback adventure and being out there for a long time, I really enjoyed it," he said.
He and his wife Marlee Ranacher took over ownership of Bullo River Station from her mother, the late Sara Henderson, after a much publicised falling out.
For 25 years the couple worked up to 9,000 head of cattle across more than 200,000 hectares.
It has been Mr Ranacher's lifelong ambition to work on the icy continent, but Bullo Station kept him too busy.
When the couple were forced to put the property on the market in 2011 in the aftermath of the Indonesian live cattle export ban, he decided to apply for a job at Wilkins Runway.
"It's been in the back of my mind for quite a few years, but working on a station I never got the time off I guess and then we sold the station a couple of years ago, I thought I'd take the opportunity and now I'm here," he said.
Mr Ranacher said there are real similarities between station life in the Northern Territory and station life at Wilkins Runway in the Antarctic.
"The weather seems to dictate what we do, the machines are all the same, we've got bulldozers and tractors," he said.
"I've done a lot of aviation up there in the Northern Territory, airplanes and helicopters, so working on the runway here is good, I enjoy it."
He has been at Wilkins for three months and has settled well into life as a plant operator preparing the blue ice runway for regular flights.
"The temperature is cold, we get cut off here, I guess, and it was the same on the station," he said.
"In the wet season we got cut off for three or four months, had to get all our supplies in and plan a little bit."
Wilkins Runway is the only airlink between Australia and the Antarctic, so its runway is a vital piece of infrastructure supporting C-17A Globemaster flights delivering heavy cargo and the Airbus 319 delivering expeditioners on their way to Australia's three main eastern Antarctic stations.
It is a vast, open space to live and work in with at times mind numbing temperatures, savage winds and blinding blizzards, but it is also breathtaking.
Runway Manager Jeff Hadley said the conditions are as harsh as they are beautiful.
"On a good blue sky day it's a lovely place to be but … later in the season it gets very cold and we experience temps in our period of operation down to minus 40 degrees, so it does get a bit harsh."
Even after living in the tropics for so long Mr Ranacher does not mind the cold.
"It's not that extreme, we've got it pretty comfortable here, the temperature is a bit cold but growing up in Austria helps a bit, back to the snow," he said.
The conditions are good inside the converted shipping containers that make up this mini Antarctic station — the crew of seven even include their own chef.
The Wilkins Runway team stay up here for another few weeks. After the last planes land and leave for the season, the team pack up the runway and put all the equipment in containers.
Franz Ranacher will then spend the Winter at Casey Station 70 kilometres away at the coast.
He will be part of the team that will set up the Wilkins Runway again ready for the first flight of next season in late October.
You can catch the full story on Landline this Sunday at noon.
Topics: community-and-society, human-interest, antarctica, australia
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