Cape Adare buildings Antarctic’s most significant
More than 120 years ago, construction began on the first buildings ever erected on the Antarctic continent, at a remote, windswept peninsula called Cape Adare. This remains the only place in the world where humanity’s first buildings on any continent survive to the present day. Now everyone can get a glimpse into what life was like for the historic explorers who lived in these important buildings, through the Antarctic 3D Artefacts experience on the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s AR App.
The historical and cultural significance of the buildings at Cape Adare makes Antarctic Heritage Trust’s conservation work there so critical, says the Trust’s Programme Manager – Artefact Conservation, Lizzie Meek.
“These are often regarded as the most significant buildings on the Antarctic continent from a heritage perspective, given they were the first ever to be erected, and are so closely tied to Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross expedition, and the Northern Party of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition. They are also protected under the Antarctic Treaty System, ensuring they will benefit from a programme of conservation, rather than being left to deteriorate and scatter into the environment.”
It was Norwegian explorer, Carsten Borchgrevink and his expedition team who started building the huts on 20 February 1899 on the remote site. The main Living Hut was constructed to house the expedition party along with a Stores Hut for their provisions. The party moved in a few days later, on 1 March, the day the Southern Cross sailed, leaving the men to spend several months in cramped, uncomfortable isolation. On 24 July 1899, it was lucky one of the buildings survived, when a candle set the hut lining alight. Later in the year, one of the men, Nicolai Hanson, suffered a debilitating illness, and died in the hut on 14 October 1899, becoming the first person to die on the Antarctic continent.
When the Southern Cross returned for the party on 28 January 1900, the men started to dismantle the Stores Hut, removing its roof, with the intention of taking it with them to use elsewhere. However, they left on 2 February 1900 before completing this task and it wasn’t until 18 February 1911 that the huts at Cape Adare were occupied again, following the arrival of Scott’s Northern Party (led by Victor Campbell). As well as erecting their own kitset wooden hut, they made good use of what was left of Borchgrevink’s encampment, covering the unroofed Stores Hut with canvas to make a storeroom, and utilising the Living Hut as a gymnasium and darkroom.
Since the Northern Party’s departure from Cape Adare, there have been only sporadic visits to the remote site. New Zealand parties visited a couple of times during the 1960s and 70s to undertake repairs, before Canterbury Museum sent an expedition party to the site in 1982 to carry out maintenance work, complete drawings of the huts, and document the artefacts.
The first party from Antarctic Heritage Trust visited in 1990 and carried out significant preservation works to the huts. This focus continued on the Trust’s next visit in 2003, when condition reports for the artefacts were also completed.
More latterly, during the summer season of 2015–2016, a small team from the Trust spent two weeks at Cape Adare gathering close to 1500 artefacts from one of the huts and carrying out further repairs and maintenance. The artefacts were later conserved in Christchurch, and seven of these very special items now feature on the Trust’s AR App.
To this day, few humans get to visit Cape Adare given the challenges of getting to its remote location. Home to around 1 million Adélie penguins, it is the world’s largest Adélie rookery, meaning visits must be carefully timed so as to cause minimal disturbance to the penguin colony. Lizzie Meek says the mere existence of these special buildings carries a resonance that is important to many people, whether reading about them, visiting them virtually, or in person.
“The conservation work carried out by the Trust to stabilise and maintain these buildings and preserve the objects they contain for the international community, ensures the story of the first Antarctic winter can continue to inspire for years to come.”
Download the Trust’s AR app and explore some of the items left behind by these early expeditions to Cape Adare and see photos, videos and listen to audio about the explorers’ experiences and how the Trust’s team is working at site conserving these huts.
How to access the app
The app is available to download for free from Google Play or the App Store.
The application is only available on surface tracking Augmented Reality compatible devices,
visit our store pages on your device to see if your device is compatible
