• How it started

https://archive.ph/mdGXw#selection-833.0-841.45

Tues 22 Feb 2022, 11.40 GMT

Australia will dispatch a fleet of new long-range helicopters, hi-tech drones and long-distance snow vehicles to Antarctica to counter increasing Chinese and Russian expansion across the southern icy continent. The near $1 billion (£530m) strategy is designed to strengthen Australia’s 42 per cent claim over Antarctica’s territory and protect against foreign moves to undermine the Antarctic Treaty signed more than 60 years ago. It comes amid growing concerns about China’s rapidly expanding presence on the continent, despite not being among the dozen countries that originally signed the treaty in 1959.

• How it's going

https://archive.ph/r3qdV#selection-1309.0-1325.101

Thu 5 Oct 2023 02.46 EDT

The Australian Antarctic Division did not have internal budgets and overspent $42m in one year before being forced to cancel or defer dozens of crucial climate science projects, including studies of record-low sea ice. The Greens have described the division’s admission as “shocking” during a Senate inquiry, triggered in part by Guardian Australia’s reports that budget pressure has stopped remediation work and research on melting glaciers, biodiversity and climate change. Several scientists told the inquiry they were frustrated their research had been repeatedly deferred.