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Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project

Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project

The largest heritage project ever undertaken in the polar regions.

In 2002, HRH Princess Anne launched the Trust’s Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project (RSHRP) in Antarctica, a multi-year, multi-site international heritage conservation project to secure the five historic explorer bases of Scott, Shackleton, Borchgrevink and Hillary, and conserve the thousands of artefacts associated with the sites. At around the same time the international community began to recognise the importance of these sites. The Getty Foundation made significant funding available for the project and the World Monuments Fund listed all four sites on their 2008 list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites on Earth. They are also protected under the Antarctic Treaty System.

Since 2006 the Trust has engaged over 80 international heritage and conservation specialists in Antarctica, working in our custom-built facilities in the most challenging heritage conservation environment on Earth.

Conservation Plans for each of the Explorer Bases, developed as part of the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project, can be purchased by emailing info@nzaht.org

Read the latest conservation news:

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Blaiklock Island

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Our colleagues at the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust have completed one of their most ambitious conservation projects yet, at Blaiklock Island Refuge – a hut frozen in time in Marguerite Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Antarctic Heritage Trust

Summer Conservation Season

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The Trust’s team began with conservation tasks in Hillary’s TAE/IGY hut and conservation treatment of artefacts while at New Zealand’s Scott Base, before deploying to Shackleton’s hut at Cape Royds.
Antarctic Heritage Trust

Historic Artefact Returns Home

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The eight young explorers were tasked with returning a classic book to the icy continent and hoped conditions would permit them to get to the base where heroic era explorers had read it, Scott’s Discovery hut at Hut Point on Ross Island.

You can conserve these incredible places

Each year our expert team of conservators travel to Antarctica to maintain and conserve these huts and the 20,000 artefacts left inside. This ongoing work ensures that the legacy of Antarctic exploration continues for generations to come. But we cannot do this work without help from people like you.

By making a gift to the Trust you can help conserve the legacy of Antarctic exploration. If you’re passionate about this work, consider becoming an Antarctic Explorer Member or leaving a gift in your Will.