I have always been interested in the early polar explorers like Richard Byrd, Roald Amundsen, Ernest Shackleton, Robert Scott, Edmund Hillary, Carsten Borchgrevink and many more. The movie "Shackleton" is one of my very favorites and there are several biographies that are also great. I had never thought of what became of the various buildings, huts, sheds, landing sites and kennels. I guess I just figured they were gone forever but I found out differently when I came across The Antarctic Heritage Trust. This organization is based out of New Zealand and its mission is to preserve, restore and maintain everything left by the early explorers. Apparently Antarctica is one of the driest places on the planet and combined with the temperature the sites were pretty well preserved. All text and photos courtesy of the Trust. They also have some great videos available on YouTube. If you would like to make a donation or join the Trust, click here.
Five expedition parties built bases in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica. The bases still stand in Antarctica today, crammed full of equipment, supplies and personal items. They are cared for, on behalf of the international community, by the Antarctic Heritage Trust.
The Trust, based in New Zealand, is engaged in a long-term cold conservation project to protect the explorers' legacy; the bases and the artefacts they left behind, for current and future generations. A project of this scale has never before been attempted in the polar regions".
"From 1987 to 2001 annual basic maintenance was carried out but in 2001 the Trust, together with an international group of conservation/heritage experts, recognised an international conservation effort was needed to ensure these sites survived for future generations.
In 2002, HRH Princess Anne, launched the Trust’s Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project (RSHRP) in Antarctica, an international. long-term cold climate project to secure the bases 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. That view was reinforced when The Getty Foundation made significant funding available for the project and the World Monuments Fund listed all four sites on their 2008 list of 100 Most Endangered Sites on Earth. They are also protected under the Antarctic Treaty System.
In 2012 the Antarctic Heritage Trust took on management responsibility for the original Trans-Antarctic Expedition building that remains at New Zealand's scientific research facility, Scott Base".
The Antarctic Heritage Trust has partnered with the Australian National Maritime Museum to bring the Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton immersive exhibition to Sydney from 2 April – 1 September 2015. The exhibition complements the Museum’s own Shackleton: Escape from Antarctica exhibition.
March 2015
A Ferguson tractor,
used by Sir Edmund Hillary’s party at the newly-constructed Scott Base
during the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955 – 58,
has been secured for public ownership through a public private
partnership between Canterbury Museum, the Antarctic Heritage Trust and
the Commodore Hotel Christchurch.
March 2015
New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon John Key launched the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s Conservation Plan for Hillary’s 1957 Hut, the foundation of New Zealand’s Scott Base, in front of more than 125 Antarcticans at Parliament.
January 2015
The world’s most extreme conservation project has saved three historic buildings and thousands of artefacts once used by Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton.
October 2014
The Trust’s conservation specialists found a notebook left behind a century ago at Captain Scott’s 1911 expedition base. George Murray Levick’s notebook contains his pencil notes detailing photographs he took while at Cape Adare in 1911.
More information and images can be found on our page: Levick’s notebook.
June 2014
The Trust has partnered with Auckland Museum and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development, to create a new Antarctic exhibition based around Jane Ussher’s evocative series of STILL LIFE images.
May 2014
The Trust is co-presenting with Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, Dr Huw Lewis-Jones’ lecture on: The Crossing of Antarctica: Original Photographs from the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958.
March 2014
The Trust presents the acclaimed Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer, by Irish playwright and actor Aidan Dooley.
December 2013
The Press reporter Deidre Mussen writes about the importance of the Ross Sea Party photographs, thought to have been taken by expedition photographer, Arnold Spencer-Smith.
Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint presenter, Mary Wilson, speaks to Executive Director Nigel Watson about the Ross Sea photographs, found almost 100 years on by our conservators.
TV3's Hamish Clark talks to Executive Director Nigel Watson about the importance of the Ross Sea Party photographs.
Lorelei Mason from TVNZ interviews our Executive Director, Nigel Watson on the photographic negative find. He talks about the Ross Sea Party photographs in the context of the wider Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project to conserve the historic bases.
Photographic negatives left a century ago in Captain Scott’s last expedition base at Cape Evans by Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party have been discovered and painstakingly conserved by the Antarctic Heritage Trust
November 2013
TV3 reporter Hamish Clark is in Antarctica. He talked to Al and Lizzie about the work we are doing to conserve Scott's Discovery Hut, a project that will take two years to complete. Watch this story now.
June 2013
Writer Finlay Macdonald and photographer Patrick Reynolds travelled to Antarctica over summer. They visited our conservation team working at Scott’s hut, Cape Evans and talked to the team about why it is important to conserve the explorers’ expedition bases. Read their Ice Houses article in the June edition of Home NZ magazine.
January 2013
Shackleton’s whisky update: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has returned 3 bottles of more than 100-year old whisky to the Antarctic Heritage Trust in Antarctica. He is pictured handing over the whisky to Antarctic Heritage Trust Trustee Rob Fenwick.
November 2012
July 2012
The Antarctic Heritage Trust is excited to be partnering with Google’s World Wonders Project to keep alive the inspiring stories of the historic explorers and to showcase the Trust’s conservation work at these iconic sites.
June 2012
Smithsonian magazine relives Shackleton’s epic endurance expedition
and profiles Jane Ussher’s stunning photographic work published in Still
Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton.
January 2012
Antarctic Sun editor Peter Rejcek interviews the Trust’s Programme Manager about the complexities involved in preserving the past, conserving the heroic era bases in the Ross Sea Region.
Read about the grandson of British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott in Antarctica to mark the centenary of his grandfather and four team members reaching the South Pole 100 years ago on 17 January 1912.
Listen to Radio New Zealand's Summer Report marking the 100th anniversary of Robert Falcon Scott's trip to the South Pole.
Listen to Radio New Zealand's Summer Nights interview ahead of the centenary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaching the South Pole, his grandson has returned to Captain Scott's Terra Nova hut to work on its conservation.
December 2011
Read the Trust’s statement on the support it will receive from Norway for the Cape Adare conservation project.
Read New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s statement about the Norwegian Government’s decision to work with the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust on the Cape Adare conservation project.
Read about Captain Scott’s grandson, Falcon Scott, joining the conservation team at Cape Evans this season.
June 2011
Read
about Scott's Last Expedition, an international touring museum
exhibition due to open at the Natural History Museum, London on 20
January 2012.
April 2011
Read how Whyte & Mackay has successfullly recreated the century-old whisky buried under Sir Ernest Shackleton's base at Cape Royds, Antarctica.
January 2011
Read BBC News Scotland's article about the whisky returning to Scotland for scientific analysis.
November 2010
Read about our international partnership to tour Scott's Last Expedition, an expedition about Captain R F Scott's race to the South Pole.
August 2010
Read the Trust media release - Shackleton's whisky revealed or view the TVNZ article.
July 2010
Read the Trust media release or The Press article regarding Shackleton's century old whisky being thawed and conserved.
February 2010
Read the Trust media release or TVNZ article about the century old whisky and brandy crates excavated from under Sir Ernest Shackleton's base.
January 2010
Read National Geographic's online article about Captain Scott's base at Cape Evans.
Listen to David Attenborough speak about Captain Scott's base on BBC's Radio 4.
December 2009
Read the call for support to save Captain Scott's base at Cape Evans. The Independent.
Read about the 100 year old butter recently found at Captain Scott's base at Cape Evans. Times Online.
Watch a newsclip about the butter find on New Zealand's TV One News.
See photos and hear Emily Stone speak about the whiskey crates found at Sir Ernest Shackleton's base at Cape Royds. PBS Newshour (USA).
November 2009
Read the GlobalPost article about the century old whiskey found at Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition base at Cape Royds.
Read articles about the Scott Polar Research Institute's plans to publish extracts from Captain Scott's last diaries on a daily internet blog (also available via Twitter).
Welcome to the Antarctic Heritage Trust
"The heroic era of Antarctic exploration (1895 – 1917) gave us great explorers including Sir Ernest Shackleton and Captain Robert Falcon Scott. In the 1950’s Sir Edmund Hillary made his mark on the great, white, continent.Five expedition parties built bases in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica. The bases still stand in Antarctica today, crammed full of equipment, supplies and personal items. They are cared for, on behalf of the international community, by the Antarctic Heritage Trust.
The Trust, based in New Zealand, is engaged in a long-term cold conservation project to protect the explorers' legacy; the bases and the artefacts they left behind, for current and future generations. A project of this scale has never before been attempted in the polar regions".
History of the Project
"The four 'heroic-era' expedition bases have stood in the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica for over a century and although Antarctica covers only an estimated 9% of the Earth's land surface, it contains more than 80% of the world's fresh water locked in its ice. It is also the driest place on the planet. While that contradiction had helped to slow the rate of decay of the bases, the bases were deteriorating".
"From 1987 to 2001 annual basic maintenance was carried out but in 2001 the Trust, together with an international group of conservation/heritage experts, recognised an international conservation effort was needed to ensure these sites survived for future generations.
In 2002, HRH Princess Anne, launched the Trust’s Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project (RSHRP) in Antarctica, an international. long-term cold climate project to secure the bases 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. That view was reinforced when The Getty Foundation made significant funding available for the project and the World Monuments Fund listed all four sites on their 2008 list of 100 Most Endangered Sites on Earth. They are also protected under the Antarctic Treaty System.
In 2012 the Antarctic Heritage Trust took on management responsibility for the original Trans-Antarctic Expedition building that remains at New Zealand's scientific research facility, Scott Base".
Latest News
April 2015The Antarctic Heritage Trust has partnered with the Australian National Maritime Museum to bring the Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton immersive exhibition to Sydney from 2 April – 1 September 2015. The exhibition complements the Museum’s own Shackleton: Escape from Antarctica exhibition.
March 2015
A Ferguson tractor,
used by Sir Edmund Hillary’s party at the newly-constructed Scott Base
during the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955 – 58,
has been secured for public ownership through a public private
partnership between Canterbury Museum, the Antarctic Heritage Trust and
the Commodore Hotel Christchurch.March 2015
New Zealand Prime Minister Rt Hon John Key launched the Antarctic Heritage Trust’s Conservation Plan for Hillary’s 1957 Hut, the foundation of New Zealand’s Scott Base, in front of more than 125 Antarcticans at Parliament.
January 2015
The world’s most extreme conservation project has saved three historic buildings and thousands of artefacts once used by Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton.
October 2014
The Trust’s conservation specialists found a notebook left behind a century ago at Captain Scott’s 1911 expedition base. George Murray Levick’s notebook contains his pencil notes detailing photographs he took while at Cape Adare in 1911.
More information and images can be found on our page: Levick’s notebook.
June 2014
The Trust has partnered with Auckland Museum and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development, to create a new Antarctic exhibition based around Jane Ussher’s evocative series of STILL LIFE images.May 2014
The Trust is co-presenting with Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, Dr Huw Lewis-Jones’ lecture on: The Crossing of Antarctica: Original Photographs from the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958.
March 2014
The Trust presents the acclaimed Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer, by Irish playwright and actor Aidan Dooley.
December 2013
The Press reporter Deidre Mussen writes about the importance of the Ross Sea Party photographs, thought to have been taken by expedition photographer, Arnold Spencer-Smith.
Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint presenter, Mary Wilson, speaks to Executive Director Nigel Watson about the Ross Sea photographs, found almost 100 years on by our conservators.
TV3's Hamish Clark talks to Executive Director Nigel Watson about the importance of the Ross Sea Party photographs.
Lorelei Mason from TVNZ interviews our Executive Director, Nigel Watson on the photographic negative find. He talks about the Ross Sea Party photographs in the context of the wider Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project to conserve the historic bases.
Photographic negatives left a century ago in Captain Scott’s last expedition base at Cape Evans by Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party have been discovered and painstakingly conserved by the Antarctic Heritage Trust
November 2013
TV3 reporter Hamish Clark is in Antarctica. He talked to Al and Lizzie about the work we are doing to conserve Scott's Discovery Hut, a project that will take two years to complete. Watch this story now.
June 2013
Writer Finlay Macdonald and photographer Patrick Reynolds travelled to Antarctica over summer. They visited our conservation team working at Scott’s hut, Cape Evans and talked to the team about why it is important to conserve the explorers’ expedition bases. Read their Ice Houses article in the June edition of Home NZ magazine.
January 2013
Shackleton’s whisky update: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has returned 3 bottles of more than 100-year old whisky to the Antarctic Heritage Trust in Antarctica. He is pictured handing over the whisky to Antarctic Heritage Trust Trustee Rob Fenwick.
November 2012
Scott’s Last Expedition
, the museum exhibition, opened at Canterbury Museum, New Zealand on 23
November 2012. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Antarctic
Heritage Trust, Canterbury Museum and Natural History Museum, London.
July 2012
The Antarctic Heritage Trust is excited to be partnering with Google’s World Wonders Project to keep alive the inspiring stories of the historic explorers and to showcase the Trust’s conservation work at these iconic sites.
June 2012
Smithsonian magazine relives Shackleton’s epic endurance expedition
and profiles Jane Ussher’s stunning photographic work published in Still
Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton.January 2012
Antarctic Sun editor Peter Rejcek interviews the Trust’s Programme Manager about the complexities involved in preserving the past, conserving the heroic era bases in the Ross Sea Region.
Read about the grandson of British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott in Antarctica to mark the centenary of his grandfather and four team members reaching the South Pole 100 years ago on 17 January 1912.
Listen to Radio New Zealand's Summer Report marking the 100th anniversary of Robert Falcon Scott's trip to the South Pole.
Listen to Radio New Zealand's Summer Nights interview ahead of the centenary of Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaching the South Pole, his grandson has returned to Captain Scott's Terra Nova hut to work on its conservation.
December 2011
Read the Trust’s statement on the support it will receive from Norway for the Cape Adare conservation project.
Read New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s statement about the Norwegian Government’s decision to work with the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust on the Cape Adare conservation project.
Read about Captain Scott’s grandson, Falcon Scott, joining the conservation team at Cape Evans this season.
June 2011
Read
about Scott's Last Expedition, an international touring museum
exhibition due to open at the Natural History Museum, London on 20
January 2012.April 2011
Read how Whyte & Mackay has successfullly recreated the century-old whisky buried under Sir Ernest Shackleton's base at Cape Royds, Antarctica.
January 2011
Read BBC News Scotland's article about the whisky returning to Scotland for scientific analysis.
November 2010
Read about our international partnership to tour Scott's Last Expedition, an expedition about Captain R F Scott's race to the South Pole.
August 2010
Read the Trust media release - Shackleton's whisky revealed or view the TVNZ article.
July 2010
Read the Trust media release or The Press article regarding Shackleton's century old whisky being thawed and conserved.
February 2010
Read the Trust media release or TVNZ article about the century old whisky and brandy crates excavated from under Sir Ernest Shackleton's base.
January 2010
Read National Geographic's online article about Captain Scott's base at Cape Evans.
Listen to David Attenborough speak about Captain Scott's base on BBC's Radio 4.
December 2009
Read the call for support to save Captain Scott's base at Cape Evans. The Independent.
Read about the 100 year old butter recently found at Captain Scott's base at Cape Evans. Times Online.
Watch a newsclip about the butter find on New Zealand's TV One News.
See photos and hear Emily Stone speak about the whiskey crates found at Sir Ernest Shackleton's base at Cape Royds. PBS Newshour (USA).
November 2009
Read the GlobalPost article about the century old whiskey found at Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition base at Cape Royds.
Read articles about the Scott Polar Research Institute's plans to publish extracts from Captain Scott's last diaries on a daily internet blog (also available via Twitter).
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