Timeline of New Zealand's links with Antarctica

This is a timeline of the history of New Zealand's involvement with Antarctica.

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]

1902

• Scott Island (formerly Markham Island), now part of the Ross Dependency, was discovered and landed upon by William Colbeck.

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]

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]

1933

• New Zealand Antarctic Society founded.

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]

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]

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

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]

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)

1995

• Closure of New Zealand's Vanda Station

1996

• Antarctica New Zealand established on 1 July to manage the Government's interest in Antarctica.

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.

• Antarctica New Zealand website
• New Zealand Antarctic Society
• New Zealand Antarctic Medal