They are adventurers, supporting Australia's missions and science in Antarctica, and they band together around this common purpose.

"You've got a vested interest in getting on with everyone," Murphy added.

Nothing is moving, not even the clouds. We're in an industrial-size kitchen, watching as a chef rolls dough for sweet pastries.

It's fundamentally important to support the science, communicate the science really well, and make sure the policy makers are aware of the science so they can take account of that in forming mitigation and adaptation strategies around the world.". "The research we do now isn't about trying to convince ourselves it's real, because it's irrefutable.

"The psychological health and wellbeing of the teams is so important to us, because without that, we don't get our work done effectively.". Inside the well-insulated walls of the station, there's not much to betray the fact they're 4000 kilometres south of Perth on a frozen continent of ice. "I have two children, I worry about their future. Add in the isolation, being thousands of miles from home with only a phone and a limited internet connection, and living in dormitory-style close quarters with 100 other people... it's a lot to get used to. Each interruption -- a footstep, a breath -- cracks like a gun blast. Casey is the site for many scientific projects, especially meteorological projects.

"It can be quite interesting. You're kitted out with bags and bags of safety equipment -- boots, jackets, at least six types of gloves, unbelievably long and thick socks, thermal underwear, goggles. "I miss trees. The ice is kilometres thick, but it's melting at 70 metres a year in some spots. You have to put up with each other.".

- Freedom of scientific investigation in Antarctica and cooperation toward that end … shall continue (Art. A fly landed on someone's leg, we hadn't seen a fly for a year and a half, and we all started chasing it around the airport," Shaw laughed. What Is Casey Research? But you all cope with each other, you have no choice.

We round a hill, march over the crest and I spot a penguin or two on the ice in the distance near the water. For anyone who wants to spend more than a few hurried days in the Antarctic, the only way is to get yourself a job on a station.

We'll come up in the morning, there will be two or three seals lying around the hole," Johnstone laughed. One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts is a noted climate change denier. Rain is not expected this day.

The science we do is critical for informing that.".

It's the community and the people," said engineer Dr Rebecca McWatters. Many though, far from having to adjust to being far from home, actually cherish the isolation. "Our experiments tell us the back of the Totten, the very deep part of the ice, is melting at about 70 metres per year, which is a huge amount," he said.

Here in Australia, the likes of George Christensen, Tony Abbott and many in the Liberal National Party are at least hesitant to blame man for climate change. "It's actually a pretty soft life on the station really," Dr Nick Gales, the head of the Australian Antarctic Division, said. He leaves us with some final thoughts before finally making it out to the glacier he has been studying from afar, the gigantic ice sheet he fears is the canary in the coalmine.

It's almost entirely untouched by humans, uninhabited but for the research teams (and a whole lot of amazing animal life, as we soon discovered); a continent literally devoted to science. Out the window, large icebergs dot the bay, looming and menacing all the way to the horizon. We're also taught how to "relieve" ourselves when out on a long walk with a pee bottle and a field toilet, basically a glorified bucket; no pissing on trees or digging a pit out here (and a free tip, try not to leave your bottle out in the snow to get frozen solid into a pee slushie).

I'm close," he said. "I felt like I was entering another world, that this was not like anything I'd seen on the planet," marine biologist Glenn Johnstone said. Frostbite can get you even more quickly.

It's all about the science, and especially climate science. "It is alarming. ", "Nowadays, the science is really critically important to what we do in the future. He said it never gets boring, never fails to take away his breath.

There are carpenters and plumbers, mechanics and cooks, doctors and electricians and more to keep the station running and operational. The scientists are a united front on climate change -- it's happening, now, and we need to take urgent steps to mitigate the onward march and begin urgent work to prepare for the coming effects. It found a lovely round porthole in the ice, a perfect round outlet cut by scientists. "People hear about the penguins and the ice but the most important part is the community. Shaw said living in such close quarters had its challenges.

Hundreds of bottles line shelves in a small room, with a clutch of expeditioners getting together Tuesdays and Thursdays to brew, bottle and bullshit. ( Log Out / 

Fletcher is currently on his eleventh winter in Antarctica, the most of anyone currently at Casey. - Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available (Art. There is huge change going on there.

It's November, when it would be coming into summer back at home. He's interested in what's below the surface. The Totten glacier is the biggest in east Antarctica. It's always the same temperature, even though it's a really harsh temperature of minus 1.85C all year, but it doesn't vary much so they only have to adapt to one temperature," Johnstone said. Life on station is now "pretty soft" compared to even the recent past, Gales said.

As soon as one of them turns around, they'll reach over and steal a rock from the other nest," Johnstone said.

She's been feeding for a few days, swimming and chasing and hunting prey, and will now spend some time on the surface digesting her massive catch. "It's one of the few places in the world where you can have a world-renowned scientist sitting down with a plumber for dinner, and the plumber is educating the scientist about his job," he said.

It's literally a big red shed, a two-storey building looking like a barn from the outside but more like an old-school ski lodge or university dormitory on the inside. Turbulent changes to your natural routine -- sleeping when the sun is high in the sky, waking up in what seems the dead of night -- are among the many quirks of the Antarctic experience. Wikipedia article: Casey Station The South Pole: basic facts and figures The South Pole is a point where imaginary Earth's axis of rotation crosses the Earth's surface in the Southern Hemisphere. Are they going to become more regular?

It's a stillness and quiet I've never experienced. We're standing on frozen sea ice -- a metre and a half thick, floating on top of 15 metre deep, freezing Southern Ocean water -- in O'Brien Bay. But for most, their choice to work in Antarctica borne from some sense of adventure and pioneering spirit, of exploration and curiosity.

he says, fiddling with a piece of research equipment, one of many complicated gizmos he shows us inside one of Casey's massive storage sheds.

Casey consists of a few large buildings and storage sheds, but much of the vital infrastructure is in the main building -- "the big Red Shed".

Antarctica is a frozen continent, but it is by no means dead.

Take away the aircraft, the shipping container of an airport and the various machinery and vehicles milling around, the landscape is more flat and featureless than you can imagine.

The light pastel colours and the way the landscape looks stark but actually changes when you look at it for a while. King says there is up to 500 million tonnes of krill in the Southern Ocean. 150-160 expeditioners visit Casey each year, but only 16-20 remain over the winter.

Weather forecast up to 14 days including temperature, weather condition and precipitation and much more. We're told there's a penguin colony on the island, but much like at the zoo, didn't expect to see much besides a few stragglers milling about while the others slept. It's like my little sanctuary.".