Wilkes Station

Wilkes Station was an American scientific research station in Antarctica, one of seven U.S. stations established for the International Geophysical Year. It was located on the northern side of Newcomb Bay.

Navy personnel from the United States constructed the main part of Wilkes in a period of sixteen days in January and February 1957, unloading eleven thousand tons of material and supplies. It took a crew of over a hundred to erect the station, which housed twenty-four naval personnel and scientists for the next eighteen months.

In February 1959, Australia assumed custody of Wilkes, which remained the property of the U.S. State Department. Although Australia officially took over the operational command, the remaining US personnel did not take kindly to being under Australian control. Consequently, there was a 'back down' until 1961 when the station came under exclusive ANARE control.

Wilkes had originally been built for a two-year period. By 1964, the buildings had become a fire hazard due to fuel seepage, and the station was becoming buried by snow and ice. The new replacement station, Casey Repstat, was developed on the other, southern, side of Newcomb Bay, about two kilometers across the bay south of Wilkes. It was commissioned in 1969 and Wilkes was closed down.

Wilkes Station is now almost permanently frozen in ice and is only occasionally revealed during a big thaw every four or five years. Many objects remain embedded in the ice, and visitors are often able to see the remains of the station through the ice.