Chilling with a few darts: Antarctic stations stage tournament

A darts tournament whereby the four Antarctic stations - Mawson, Davis, Casey and Macquarie Island - face off against each other with the aid of video conferencing technology has become an annual staple.

"The idea of an interstation darts competition goes back many years, and is now an annual event that runs generally in August," Macquarie Island deputy station leader William Seal said.

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The format of the tournament is a best-of-three game of Shanghai. For every game, each station fields a new team of two competitors. All the stations face off against each other once.

Macquarie Island Station communications officer Troy Henderson said there had been some "good [old] smack-talking between the stations" in the heat of competition.

"Due to the smells and general unpleasant behaviour of the Antarctic folks, all games are conducted over a video link," he joked.

Macquarie Island, or 'Macca' as it's colloquially known, is a Tasmanian State Reserve and is located between New Zealand and Antarctica. Meanwhile, the other three stations are all situated on the Antarctic continent.

The darts tournament has been put on hold after wild winds tore off sections of the station mess roof last Saturday.

"I'm in discussions with Mawson Station's coordinator to find a suitable date that is after their upcoming long-duration trip off-station which is expected to be 10 days," Mr Seal said. "Hopefully our roof repairs will be completed by then."

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