TONY PARKER NESC
Campbell Island EP
A Musical Narrative EP - 1984 - 1985
Captures life on the sub-antarctic Campbell Island Meteorological Station in the mid-1980s.
Enduring the isolation, the cold, bleak winds and the beauty of a sub-antarctic island with incredible wildlife and history.
Southbound on the Southern Ocean
Getting There:
Campbell Island 1984 - 1 Year Posting:
Full of apprehension, we left Bluff Harbour in the GMV Wairua, the old Stewart Island Ferry. A group of seven young technicians and a cook to spend a year on New Zealand’s southernmost sub-Antarctic island, Campbell Island. Each person had a designated area of expertise, from meteorology to telecommunications, mechanical and ionospheric research and observations.
So off we set into the westerly gales of Foveaux Strait. It didn’t take long for the winds to pick up to 40-50 knots and seas soared to nine metres. As we continued south, deep in the Southern Ocean, we’d ride up these monsters of waves, the size of two-story buildings, then fall down the other side, sending vibrations down the length of the ship.
In these conditions, with the enormous seas and salt spray being hurled about by the freezing gales melded into the featureless sky, the ship’s stabilisers were retracted, and we were at the mercy of the angry ocean, miles from nowhere. But then, after 39 hours of harrowing roller coasteering, we motored slowly into the dog-legged inlet known as Perseverance Harbour and were greeted by icy sun-Antarctic air and snow on the hills.
THE ISOLATION
The Isolation ft - Swampy Crompton
A Musical Narrative featuring: Swamps Crompton
This song, by way of a narration from Swamps Crompton, captures the magic and isolation of working on sub-antarctic Campbell Island. For some it was place people couldn’t wait to get off but for most, it was an island you didn’t really want to leave. Campbell Island was a very isolated posting and Swamps tells the story of how he dealt with this isolation, and how others around him coped.
Swamps has spent more time on Campbell Island than any other person, having spent seven years, five months and three days there. Having once been described as a professional isolate, Swamps was happiest on Campbell Island and loved staying at the remote huts scattered around the island. But others did find it quite a long run and a difficult experience.
Campbell Island is some 675km south of New Zealand’s southern-most city, Invercargill. There are no airports, no cars, no bars, no shops and back then, of course no internet. The only way of getting there was a long and harrowing voyage on a ship and once there, we were there for a year. There was no coming back. We took enough food down with us for a good six months and were restocked with fresh supplies six months in. Mail was sometimes dropped by parachute by the Royal New Zealand air force but not often. You were lucky to see three mail deliveries in a year. We had three-hourly radio skeds with New Zealand during which we passed coded weather information and after which, we could make calls to friends and family by way of a single side band radio, which was patched to the New Zealand telephone network, in Wellington.
At most, we had 11 people on the island and we all had our specific jobs to do. Some of these involved working a 24hour roster and indeed the thought of walking down to the meteorological instrument enclosure in the darkness of dark, at thee o’clock in the morning, hearing nothing more than the snuffling of a nearby sea lion and seeing the southern lights overhead, while the rest of the island was fast asleep made the excursion at that more special. The weather was often not as friendly though, and freezing temperatures, showers of snow and hail and gale force westerlies were more of the norm.
Indoor and outdoor hobbies were an important aspect of dealing with the isolation and for me, photography, tramping, a fascination of the natural world, ham radio and music were enough to keep me occupied for the year I spent on Campbell Island.
A WHALE BENEATH MY BOAT.
This song is based on an actual event at sub-Antarctic Campbell Island on the afternoon of 19 May 1985. Campbell Island was a remote weather base and my friend, Peter Fisher was a meteorological technician at the time.
He was working his way across the harbour in a small boat when a huge Southern Right Whale appeared. At one point it dived directly under his boat and being so far from home or any help he was more than a little anxious - until he looked down and in the clear water saw the whale looking back up at him..
After a short moment, the whale came alongside the boat, lifting its head and looking him in the eye, and continued to dive around his boat. A truly magical moment with one of the world's most enormous creatures.
WHALES - CAMPBELL ISLAND
Occasionally, we’d be out in the harbour in the station boat or even in one of the Campbell Island-made canoes when we’d encounter a whale. Some of these whales were up to 50 feet in length and weighed in at up to 50 tons. They were gentle giants, though and tended not to shy away from us in our boat and would regularly put displays on by leaping clear out of the water and returning with a thunderous splash.
They would then return to the surface and blow, with a sound much like blowing across the top of a milk bottle. They were probably more inquisitive than fearful, despite nearly being hunted to extinction in the 1800s. n one particular meeting with a whale in the harbour, the mammal blow then dived under the boat. We were a long way from shore, and things could have turned messy. We were a long way from home, and the whale was soon to be heading to the sub-tropical feeding grounds.
Looking down into the icy water, I could see the huge eye of the whale looking back up at me; any feeling of apprehension fled, knowing everything was going to be OK.
Photograph of a southern right whale, taken from the middle of Perseverance Harbour, Campbell Island on the afternoon of 19 May 1985. The whale pictured is the subject of this song, photographed here against the Mt. Honey shoreline.
LYRICS
A whale beneath my boat.
As I row across the bay
As the wind numbs my face
I hear you before I see you
Putting on a display
I can hear you
I can see you
I’m a long way from home
I’m a long way from home
As you dive deep into the ocean
I fear you are right under me
As you look into my eyes
Just for one moment we are free
I can see you
I can hear you
I am such a long, long way from home
I am such a long, long way from home
I can see you.
I can hear you.
I want to be you.
I want to know you.
I am such a long, long way from home
I am such a long, long way from home
a long way from home
Words: Tony Parker NESC
Music: Tony Parker NESC
Production: Tony Parker NESC & Peter Fisher
Based on a true event 19th May 1985
THE LEGEND OF THE LADY OF THE HEATHER:
The Lady of the Heather' was a Jacobite princess - the illegitimate granddaughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
She was kidnapped from France about 200 years ago, carried off to New Zealand and abandoned on remote Campbell Island.
This is the story and the legend that became
"The Lady of the Heather"
