Timeline of New Zealand's links with Antarctica
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This is a timeline of the history of New Zealand's involvement with Antarctica.
Pre 1900s
[edit]- 1838–1840
- French and American expeditions, led by Jules Dumont d'Urville and Charles Wilkes. John Sac, a Māori travelling with Wilkes, becomes the first New Zealander to cross the Antarctic Circle.[1]
- 1895
- New Zealander Alexander von Tunzelmann becomes the first person to set foot on Antarctica, at Cape Adare.[2]
- 1899
- February British expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink, including several New Zealanders, establishes first base in Antarctica, at Cape Adare. This expedition becomes the first to winter over on the continent.[2]
1900s
[edit]- 1902
- Scott Island (formerly Markham Island), now part of the Ross Dependency, was discovered and landed upon by William Colbeck.
1910s
[edit]- 1910
- Robert Falcon Scott leaves for Antarctica from Port Chalmers. Scott's party later died on the return journey after being delayed by a blizzard.[3]
- 1911–1914
- Four New Zealanders (H Hamilton, AJ Sawyer, EN Webb, and LA Webber) are members of Douglas Mawson's Australian Antarctic expedition.[4]
1920s
[edit]- 1923
- Ross Dependency proclaimed on 30 July as a British Territory entrusted to New Zealand.[4]
- 1928
- US Navy Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd leaves Dunedin for the first sea-air exploration expedition to the Antarctic. As part of this expedition, Byrd took part in a flight over the South Pole with pilot Bernt Balchen on 28 and 29 November 1929.
- 1929
- Combined UK-Australia-NZ expedition led by Douglas Mawson; New Zealand members include RA Falla and RG Simmers.[5]
1930s
[edit]- 1933
- New Zealand Antarctic Society founded.
1940s
[edit]- 1946
- New Zealand joins the International Whaling Commission to help oversee whaling in the southern ocean.[5]
- 1949
- First publication of New Zealand Antarctic Society quarterly journal, Antarctic[5]
1950s
[edit]- 1955
- In August, The New Zealand Government decide to establish an Antarctic base as part of its contribution to International Geophysical Year (1957–58).[6]
- United States Operation Deep Freeze begins to use Christchurch as a launching point for flights to Antarctica.[7]
- 1956
- McMurdo Station established; construction of both Scott Base and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station started.
- 1957
- 20 January: Scott Base established in Ross Dependency.
- The first New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition sets out to conduct explorations of the Ross Dependency. The expedition names several geographic features, including the Borchgrevink Glacier.[8]
- Hallett Station South of Cape Adare is established as a joint New Zealand-United States operation.[9]
- Bill Cranfield, John Claydon, and a New Zealand scientist arrived at the South Pole by air aboard a US Navy airplane;
- 1958
- 4 January Edmund Hillary, leading an expedition using farm tractors equipped for polar travel, arrives at the Pole, the first expedition since Scott's to reach the South Pole over land; part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.[9] Hillary was the first New Zealander to reach the South Pole overland.
- The second New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE) names further features of the Ross Dependency, including the Mountaineer Range.[10]
- 1959
- 1 December Antarctic Treaty signed with other countries involved in scientific exploration in Antarctica.[11]
- New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) established an Antarctic Division.[9]
1960s
[edit]- 1964
- January Walter Nash becomes the first Prime Minister of New Zealand to visit Antarctica.[12]
- Hallett Station destroyed by fire. It is not rebuilt[9] but is used as a summer-only base until 1973.
- 1965
- The first flight from New Zealand to Antarctica made by a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft[13]
- 1968
- Marie Darby becomes first New Zealand woman to visit the Antarctic[14]
- 1969
- Final New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition, which visited the Scott Glacier and named features in that area[10]
- 12 November South Pole visited for the first time by women – four Americans, an Australian, and New Zealander Pamela Young[9]
- Vanda Station staffed for the first time
1970s
[edit]- 1970
- Antarctic Amendment Act 1970 comes into force, providing protection for Antarctic flora and fauna within the Ross Dependency.[15]
- 1972–1974
- First solo voyage to Antarctica, by New Zealand-born yachtsman and author David Lewis[16]
- 1974
- December Joint NZ-France expedition makes first ascent, and descent into crater, of Mount Erebus.
- Antarctic Museum Centre opened at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch.[16]
- 1976
- Thelma Rodgers, of New Zealand's DSIR, becomes the first woman to winter over on Antarctica.[16]
- 1977
- New Zealand proclaims Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km), which provides for the zone to also include Ross Dependency's waters.[16]
- 1979
- Mount Erebus disaster: Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 on a sightseeing flight to Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board[17]
1980s
[edit]- 1980
- New Zealand is signatory to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which comes into effect in 1982.[16]
- 1982
- 20 January Rob Muldoon becomes the first sitting Prime Minister of New Zealand to visit Antarctica.[16]
- June Antarctic Treaty nations meet in Wellington to discuss the exploitation of Antarctica's minerals.[16]
- 1987
- Closure of Scott Base Post Office (reopened in 1994)
1990s
[edit]- 1995
- Closure of New Zealand's Vanda Station
- 1996
- Antarctica New Zealand established on 1 July to manage the Government's interest in Antarctica.
2000s
[edit]- 2006
- October (to January 2007): New Zealanders Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald become the first people to walk to the South Pole without the aid of any supply dumps.[18] Their plan to parasail back is abandoned.[19]
- 30 December: The New Zealand Antarctic Medal (NZAM) is awarded for the first time[20]
- 2007
- Prime Minister Helen Clark and Sir Edmund Hillary (aged 87) travel with an official party to Scott Base to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its founding.
References
[edit]- ↑ Fraser, B. (ed.) (1986) The New Zealand book of events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00123-7. p. 72.
- 1 2 Fraser, B. (ed.) (1986) The New Zealand book of events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00123-7. p. 73.
- ↑ Preston, D. (1999). A First Rate Tragedy: Captain Scott's Antarctic Expeditions. London: Constable. ISBN 9780094795303.
- 1 2 Fraser, B. (ed.) (1986) The New Zealand book of events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00123-7. p. 74.
- 1 2 3 Fraser, B. (ed.) (1986) The New Zealand book of events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00123-7. p. 75.
- ↑ Fraser, B. (ed.) (1986) The New Zealand book of events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00123-7. pp. 75–76.
- ↑ "First flights to Antarctica | NZ History". nzhistory.govt.nz. Manatū Taonga — Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 14 October 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
- ↑ Harrington, H. J. (1958). "New Zealand Geological Survey Expedition to Ross Dependency, 1957-58". Polar Record. 9 (60): 261–2. doi:10.1017/S0032247400065852.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Fraser, B. (ed.) (1986) The New Zealand book of events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00123-7. p. 76.
- 1 2 Alberts, Fred G., ed. (1995). Geographic Names of the Antarctic (PDF) (2 ed.). United States Board on Geographic Names. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
- ↑ "The Antarctic Treaty | Antarctic Treaty". www.ats.aq. Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
- ↑ Sinclair, Keith (1976). Walter Nash. Auckland University Press. p. 363.
- ↑ "Our history: Decades of flying to the ice". www.nzdf.mil.nz. 27 January 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
- ↑ "Women in Antarctica | NZHistory, New Zealand history online". nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
- ↑ "Antarctica Amendment Act 1970 (1970 No 34)". NZLII. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Fraser, B. (ed.) (1986) The New Zealand book of events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00123-7. p. 77.
- ↑ "257 killed on Mt Erebus". nzhistory.govt.nz. Manatū Taonga — Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
- ↑ McNaughton, Maggie (12 September 2006). "Out of the freezer and to the South Pole". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
- ↑ "NZ Herald: New Zealand's Latest News, Business, Sport, Weather, Travel, Technology, Entertainment, Politics, Finance, Health, Environment and Science". The New Zealand Herald.
- ↑ "The New Zealand Antarctic Medal". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, New Zealand. 31 December 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
