|
Hearts
Talk has readers in some surprising places. This year, since it
went on line, a new place has been added: the Australian
Antarctic Territory.
Jacobyte author Lucinda Forester has settled in for the year
at Davis, the southernmost of the three Australian stations on
the Antarctic continent.
Antarctica is not a likely place to find a romance writer. It’s
still very much a man’s world, especially over winter. The
culture is robust and blokey and the station library is
dominated by crime, adventure and travel. Nevertheless Lucinda
quietly plies her craft although she has no plans to tell her
fellow expeditioners about it just yet…
Is this your first visit to Antarctica?
No, my second. I wintered at Casey in ’99. That was a good
year, I loved Casey and I got some serious writing done there. I
couldn’t get Hearts Talk, though, it wasn’t on line then.
Are you writing now?
Not nearly as much as I should be. This year I’m sort of
bogged, creatively. We all know the feeling, don’t we?
Besides, they keep us busy here. I really only get Sundays for
writing, and even that depends on whether I behaved myself on
Saturday night.
Why, what happens on Saturday nights?
We have our formal station dinner, with a special menu and
candles and wine. We usually dress up. It’s an Antarctic
tradition, and one that works pretty well. The only downside is
that I’m not always in the best of condition on Sundays.
What’s your day job down there?
Communications and computers. We have all kinds of
electronics here, from low-frequency Morse stuff Marconi would
have recognised, right up to satellite links and a full fibre
optic network. It’s quite a challenge keeping it all going.
As a writer, does the Antarctic inspire you?
No, not especially, although from a writer’s point of view,
of course it’s a fascinating setting, and one day I might use
it. The Antarctic impact is very personal. I’ll never forget
my first few hours at Casey, trying to take it all in. Once
seen, never forgotten. And the ice is only part of it: there’s
Hobart, the waterfront pubs, the people, the ships, the stories,
they’re all part of the Antarctic experience. It draws people
back, time and time again. Including me.
How do you cope with being a romance writer in a place full
of men?
I simply don’t talk about it. A certain respect for privacy
is a condition of living down here; we each keep a few little
areas roped off from the others, and people respect that. Mine
is my writing. I’m lucky insofar as I have plenty of on-line
people to share it with. As a writer, I’m never alone.
Are there any other women down there?
There is only one other wintering here at Davis, with 20 men.
She’s a physicist called Frances, doing some upper-atmosphere
studies. Over summer you get quite a number, because most of the
biological scientists these days are female, but not many women
stay for the winter.
Why not? Is there still resistance to women in Antarctica?
Yes, there is still a bit of lingering resentment amongst a
few of the old hands. But generally we’re well accepted now.
The reason you don’t get many wintering women is simply one of
skills. The maintenance gets done over winter, so most of the
winterers are tradespeople, and we need good ones with a lot of
experience. There just aren’t many female tradespersons around
with the skills and experience we need here. The wintering women
tend to be doctors, station leaders, Met observers or chefs.
Station leaders? In charge of the whole base?
That’s right. It’s not uncommon these days. Two of the
four station leaders this year are women, at Mawson and
Macquarie Island. We have a male one at Davis, married in fact
to the SL at Mawson.
Would you like to be a station leader too?
No way! All that paperwork! I’m happy where I am.
You must meet some exceptional women there.
Oh yes. Our summer Trades Supervisor at Davis this year was a
lady called Janine. She’d lost a leg in a motorbike accident,
and to get down here she had to show she could negotiate a rope
ladder, in case there was an emergency at sea. She’s quite a
lady, believe me, and a very good supervisor. She’s coming
down again next year.
We’ve all heard stories about the parties down there. Are
they true?
Some of them. Over summer especially, when the girls are on
station, there can be some pretty big nights. On New Year’s
morning at Casey, I went into my bathroom half asleep and found
a large hairy man I’d never seen before asleep in my bath,
wearing a frock. It was quite a start to the year.
Love stories – do they happen there too?
Yes, heaps. People fall in love here the same as anywhere
else, but the setting, the hothouse atmosphere of a tiny
isolated community, seems to heighten the whole thing, sort of
lifts it out of the mundane somehow. It’s the same on ships;
they used to have a term for it, the ‘shipboard romance’.
The results vary; a few of them last and go on to marriage, but
most are over by the time the summer ends. It keeps us
interested and highly entertained, I can tell you.
Where to next, Lucinda?
 Back to Australia in December, then home to Darwin and my
family. I probably won’t be back South again. Two years away
is enough. But wherever I end up, this is one part of my life I’ll
never forget.
Lucinda Forester’s book Dangerous Affair is available
at Australian e-publishers Jacobyte
Books
|
