Wilkins Runway, Australian Antarctic Division, Antarctica

 Three of my five summmers in Antarctica were with Australia, and two of them at Wilkins Runway.  Pre departure training each year, was 3 month in Hobart and covered all things aviation that you could think of.  I enjoyed all that learning and aviation is definitely very interesting.  

Back then we had access to intra-email and a satellite phone for the odd phone call home now and then.  for supplies, doctor visits, a night or two here and there, wed go down to Casey station.  

Australias airbus and a Chinese helicopter

Wilkins Runway is one of the most remote airstrips in the world, sitting on the icy surface of Antarctica about 70 kilometres from Casey Station. It’s named after the Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins and was built by the Australian Antarctic Division to give Australia a direct air link to the continent. Before it existed, people and cargo had to travel by ship, which could take weeks depending on the sea ice. Now, flights from Hobart to Wilkins take around four and a half hours, making it far easier to move scientists, supplies, and staff between Australia and the ice.

The runway sits on top of the Vanderford Glacier, roughly 700 metres above sea level. It isn’t made of tarmac but of compacted blue glacial ice, which shifts and moves slightly every year. Building something like this in such a place was a major challenge. Work began in the early 2000s and the runway officially opened in 2008. It stretches about 3.5 kilometres long and 100 metres wide, big enough for large aircraft like the Airbus A319 that Australia uses for Antarctic flights. Keeping the surface level and strong enough to handle a heavy plane on ice takes constant work.

Temperatures at Wilkins can drop below minus 30 degrees, and even a small rise above freezing can soften the surface too much for landings. Because of that, the runway is only open during the short summer season from November to February, when the ice is stable and visibility is good enough for flying. Weather conditions can change fast, so flights are often delayed or cancelled.

A small team lives at Wilkins through the season to look after the runway, equipment, and weather stations. They work long hours in cold winds, often in complete daylight, maintaining the surface with heavy machinery to make sure it’s safe. Living conditions are basic and isolated, with a small mess, sleeping quarters, and vehicles for transport. When the runway closes at the end of summer, it’s shut down completely until the next year.

Landing at Wilkins is a unique experience. From the air there’s nothing but endless white, and when the plane touches down, it’s on solid ice rather than a normal runway. The braking and speed control are carefully calculated because of the reduced friction. Once the engines stop, the silence and brightness are intense. The only movement is the wind and the distant line of vehicles waiting to take people back to Casey Station. It’s a strange mix of excitement and quiet, knowing how few people ever set foot there.

Wilkins Runway has strict environmental rules. Everything brought in, including fuel and waste, has to be carefully managed and taken out again. The ice surface itself is constantly monitored because it slowly moves with the glacier, sometimes several metres each year. Engineers have to resurvey and realign parts of the runway to keep it safe. There’s no sense of permanence here — the ice changes constantly, and the camp shifts with it.

The runway has made a huge difference to how Australia operates in Antarctica. It allows for quick transport of people and urgent medical evacuations, and it supports research projects that depend on short summer visits. For scientists studying climate, ice movement, and wildlife, that air access is essential.

Even with all the technology, Wilkins still feels like a frontier. The weather decides everything. It’s isolated, quiet, and demands a lot of patience. People who work there know how small they are compared to the scale of the continent. The ice moves beneath their feet, the winds come and go, and the work never really stops. Wilkins Runway might look like a strip of ice in the middle of nowhere, but it’s one of the most important connections between Australia and the frozen world to the south — a reminder that even in a place as harsh as Antarctica, people continue to adapt and find ways to live and work.