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"Stay"
- a short biography |
| summary of an article by Jeremy Smith (Station Leader Davis 2003) Aurora Vol.22 No. 4 June 2003 |
| Stay is a fibreglass Guide Dog collection box in the form of a life-size golden retriever. Since 1991 she has wintered at every ANARE station, spent time at various field sites including the Prince Charles Mountains, Mt Brown and Bechervaise Island, and has visited places as remote as Heard Island and Spitsbergen. most of the dog's journeys have been surreptitious and as a consequence of kidnap, as a result Stay has aquired almost lgendary status in the recent folklore of ANARE. As with all legends, rumour and fancy have over the years become blended with historical fact. | ||
| For several years Stay had a passport hung around her neck recording many of her travels, but it had disintergrated by the time it disapeared at Mawson 2001. Her adventures have therefore had to be reconstructed by seeking information from expeditioners and others whose paths have been crossed with Stay over the years. The present account is the result of these enquiries. | ||
Stay was collected from The Guide Dog Association in Elizabeth St Hobart in late 1991. The idea was that of Station Leader - John Wilson - as a symbolic protest that the real dogs were being sent home from Antarctic stations. (Environmental Protocol, nations came up with the notion thatAustralia's dogs in Antarctica could spread distemper to the seal population)........... So as the Aussie dogs came out - Stay went in. |
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| Those at Mawson station being quite devistated by the loss of the real dogs, decided that Stay should live on at Mawson as a dog substitute. On the first voyage of the 92/93 summer ........two outgoing Mawson winterers did a reconnaisissance trip and found Stay at Davis.. as they wanted to get Stay back to Mawson, the two put Stay in the care of Paddy, one of the ships crew, with the intention of (he) being handed over to Mawson the next voyage of the season. However during the voyage .. the Husky Bar was being set up by the crew and it was decided that Stay would be a great addition. They diligently made (her) a langyard and Stay became a regular in the Husky Bar. | ||
| Stay came for ashore at Mawson during personel changeover but was, on the proviso that (she) was returned before the ship sailed. However the Mawson crew had different ideas - there was no way that Stay was not staying. Stay was hidden away till the ship had departed; Paddy was said to be less than impressed. | ||
| Stay's woes had only just begun, she was taken to the dog line at Mawson, from where the Huskies were shortly to be removed forever, and suffered the same indignities that city dogs bestow upon lamp-posts. There was also a crippling accident - | ||
| During the summer an 'incident' occurred. Al grant a former rugby player and Station Leader launched a rugby tackle and on a "Chippy" Stay unselfishly broke their fall, but there was a loud crack at the impact. Yes Stay's leg was off. | ||
| As Davis has been agitating for the return of Stay, another Chippy (Peter Osbansen) decided it made sense to make a prosthetic for Stay and send the real leg to Davis with a ransom demand. The leg was sent out on the next ship with the langyard attached, and a note explaining that "this is all your getting" So Stay then stayed for the summer. | ||
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| As the ship (Ice Bird) pulled out of the harbour on the last voyage of the season, Stay was suddenly spotted on board being carried as a trophy of war, amid much gesticulation and cheering. | ||
| Stay had a long trip on the Ice Bird - (she) got to see Heard Island, en route to Macquarie Island. Stay was to winter at Macca in the hope of catching a lift to Casey the following season. | ||
| It appears that Stay wintered at Casey in 1994, and next winter 1995 at Mawson. She was hidden for most of the '95-'96 summer in a traverse van at Gwamm on the Antarctic plateau. Towards the end of summer (she) was fitted with a new Huon pine leg that she wears today, wintered again at Mawson in 1996, participated in a traverse to the Prince Charles Mountains, and next summer visited the ship Kaptain Khlebnikov. | ||
| Later that summer, she as stolen again. Stay was onboard the Aurora Australis during Voyage 6 and off-loaded at Macquarie Island where she stayed for two winters, 1997and 1998, then to locked office at the Antarctic Division at Kingston, Hobart. | ||
| She was liberated and toured parts of Victoria with police friends including Ian Lanyon who was to become the next Davis Station Leader. In late '98 Ian organised to have Stay sent to Davis for the 99 winter... but once again Stay was diverted elsewhere, whilst the ship was stuck in ice off Casey, Stay was rescued from the container and placed on the first 'chopper' into Casey. Stay arived in style, sitting in the front seat next to the pilot, properly strapped in and wearing headphones. She spent the 1999 winter at Casey, but was stolen again next summer and wintered in 2000 at Davis. | ||
| She spent most of 2000-01 summer and the '01 winter at at Mawson where she was kidnapped in a mail-bag and spent much of Voyage 5 on the Bridge of the Aurora Australis. A squirel helicopter then flew from the ship to Davis where she stayed till the end of the 2000-01 summer. At the end the season Stay journeyed to Ny Alesund international research station on Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago in the High Atlantic for the northern summer via Hobart and the UK. | ||
| Ny Alesund is the worlds most northerly settlement at 79degrees North, Ny Alesund played a considerable role in polar exploration being the starting point of Amunsdens's overflights of the north pole by a Zepplin and the end point of Wally Herbert's pioneering crossing of the artic via the pole...................hence Stay's interest in visiting. | ||
| .Stay returned to Davis in December 2002 and is still there now...........................maybe. | ||
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| Stay remains technically the property of Guide Dogs Tasmania ( Royal Guide Dogs for the Blind Association of Tasmania). Mawson expeditioners in 2001 collected more than $1000 for Guide Dogs Tasmania and in 2003 at Davis they had raised or pledged $1100 at the time of the article. | ||
