Eight volunteers brave Antarctica to repair world’s most remote post office

Working beside a colony of penguins is not in most job descriptions, but a team of eight volunteers is making the 9,000-mile journey to Antarctica to protect a British science base.

The team will be based on Goudier Island — about the size of a football pitch — for five months to carry out significant repairs on Port Lockroy, home to the world’s most remote Post Office.

Royal Air Force veteran Carole McCullough from County Down, who is leading the group, said the opportunity was too good to pass up despite missing her daily runs.”I will just open the door and look at the beautiful surroundings and our local neighbours are a massive penguin colony, so that will be fantastic,” she said.

The Port Lockroy facility is more than 80 years old and needs significant repairs due to age and environmental factors such as increased rainfall, water flow and snow loading, the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) said.

This is the second year of UKAHT’s three-year mission to protect the historic base, with the team set to travel at the end of October.

Base A Port Lockroy was originally established in 1944 as part of a secret wartime mission to establish a presence on the continent and is now a designated heritage site.

The crew will share a bunk room with no running water or flushing toilets, while working in almost constant daylight and sub-zero conditions. First aid training, sea survival and penguinology talks formed part of their preparation.

Alongside running the post office, museum and gift shop, they will install up to six beams on the roof and 30 steel and timber props in the floor to help it withstand increased precipitation and snow.

The team will also monitor the colony of more than 1,000 Gentoo penguins on the island and be sent to Wordie House, which holds the only continuous climate record there since the 1940s.

McCullough said she applied after hearing about the role on the news: “The more I read, the more I thought this is the most fantastic opportunity… To work for a charity in the Antarctic is fantastic and we are supporting that link from the past to the present day.”