The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has run an arts fellowship program since the early 1980s, sending artists of all kinds, including writers, poets, filmmakers, photographers, artists, musicians and dancers, to visit Antarctica. It has been an exceptional program resulting in a significant body of creative work over some three decades. I thank the AAD for running this program and for awarding me the 2011–12 Antarctic Arts Fellowship, enabling me to voyage for six weeks on Aurora Australis and visit Ingrid Christensen Land, where Davis Station is located.
AAD marketing and events manager Kristin Raw cheerfully encouraged me to apply for three years running and was most helpful before and after my voyage. I am grateful to Antarctic expeditioner Dave Hoskin, who took me on an unforgettable field trip in Ingrid Christensen Land (including a visit to Caroline Mikkelsen’s landing site) and allowed me to use some of his photographs. Outgoing Davis Station leader Graham Cook was happy to spend hours while we sailed back to Australia discussing conspiracy (and other) theories about where the women landed. Voyage leader Sharon Labudda and deputy leader Leanne Millhouse made the trip a pleasure, along with the friendly crew of Aurora Australis, the expeditioners heading down to Antarctica for the 2011–12 summer, and those hardy souls who had spent the previous winter there and returned on the ship with me. Photographer Tui De Roy was also on the ship and inspired me to improve my photography, as well as allowing me to use some of her images. Thanks to Margie Law and Jane Wasley (AAD scientist) for putting me up in their house in Hobart, which I’m sure felt like the Antarctica halfway hotel by the end of the season.
I wrote Chasing the Light as part of a Doctor of Creative Arts in the Writing and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). I am very grateful to the university for supporting my research for three years with a scholarship. Thanks to my supervisor, Gail Jones, who headed me off at the pass when I was going in a wrong direction and saved me a lot of heartache with her wise feedback and warm encouragement. Thanks to staff members Melinda Jewell and Suzanne Gapps, who helped with admin and travel plans, arranged fabulous food at all the group’s events, and organised a brilliant series of seminars and workshops over the three years of my candidature. UWS librarian Susan Robbins went beyond the call of duty in helping me settle in to university life, find a Norwegian translator and track down tricky historical details. Academic staff at the centre and my fellow candidates were encouraging and inspiring – I will miss being part of that group.
In 2011, I travelled to Norway to research Ingrid Christensen in more detail. Thank you to Ingrid Wangen, granddaughter of Ingrid Christensen, who spent several hours talking to me about her grandmother and showing me the diary/photo album from Ingrid’s third voyage.
Thanks to modern-day Norwegian Antarctic adventurer Liv Arnesen (the first woman to ski solo to the South Pole), who put me in touch with Wanda Widerøe and Turi Widerøe, daughters of Solveig Widerøe who went to Antarctica on Ingrid’s final voyage in 1937. I spent a wonderful afternoon with Wanda and her husband, Kaare, eating waffles and strawberries and drinking champagne at their summer house near Sandefjord while discussing women and Antarctica, as well as the mating habits of elk.
Staff at the Sandefjord Whaling Museum in Norway gave me access to Lars Christensen’s diaries and other materials during my visit, and have been most generous with permitting me to use historical photographs from Christensen’s voyages in talks and publications. Thank you to museum curator/historian Jan Erik Ringstad, curator/historian Dag Ingemar Børresen and photo and film consultant Øyvind Thuresson (who introduced me to Ingrid’s granddaughter). Polar researcher Susan Barr from the Fram Museum made time to meet me and answer my questions.
Two people helped me with translations from Norwegian into English. Thanks to Tonje Ackherholt for answering all my questions so promptly, as well as for translating longer documents. Thanks to Eva Ollikainen, cabin mate on my first trip to Antarctica with Aurora Expeditions, who translated the critical ‘Who landed first?’ entry from Lars Christensen’s diary minutes before we flew out of Oslo in different directions.
Ingrid Christensen’s grandson, Thor Egede-Nissen, heard about my project and sent me fascinating documents including the transcript of a journal kept by his mother ‘Bolle’ in 1931 and 1932, in which Bolle wrote about her frustration at Ingrid, with all the vehemence of a rebellious teenage daughter. Thor also advised me that Ingrid’s mother, Alfhild, was committed to an asylum in Ingrid’s youth and spent the rest of her life there.
Thanks to Howard Whelan and Rosy Whelan for encouragement and Antarctic contacts, and to Elizabeth (Elle) Leane of the University of Tasmania for several conversations about women and Antarctica over the course of the writing. Stephen Martin, then the Antarctic specialist at the State Library of NSW, gave me early advice and encouragement. Alice Giles and Arnan Weisel from the School of Music at the Australian National University organised an inspiring conference ‘Antarctica – Music, Sound and Cultural Connections’ in 2011, which was very helpful for my research.
Diana Patterson, one of Australia’s first female station leaders in Antarctica, wrote about Caroline Mikkelsen’s landing site and managed to track down Caroline in Norway before she died. Thanks to Diana for meeting me and talking about the landings. Polar researcher Ian Norman and his colleagues John Gibson, Robert (Bob) Jones and Jim Burgess wrote two fascinating articles in the Polar Record journal analysing where Caroline Mikkelsen landed in Antarctica. Any change to the historical record about the first woman to land on the Antarctic mainland is thanks to their extensive efforts.
I joined a humpback whale research voyage with Wally and Trish Franklin of the Oceania Project in 2009 which helped me understand the impact of 1930s pelagic whaling on creatures in the Southern Ocean.
I have greatly enjoyed meeting and/or corresponding with other Antarctic writers (many of whom travelled south on AAD arts fellowships) including Robyn Mundy, Alison Lester, Hazel Edwards, Favel Parrett, LA Larkin, Tom Griffiths, Karen Viggers, Craig Cormick, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Diana Patterson, Emma McEwin, Elizabeth Leane and Leslie Carol Roberts.
Thanks to my agent, Sophie Hamley, and publisher HarperCollins, particularly Jo Butler, Sue Brockhoff, Kate O’Donnell, Kate Burnitt and Jane Finemore.
The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre in Byron Bay has been an ongoing support since I moved to Byron Shire more than a decade ago and I thank the centre’s past and current staff.
My writing group read and commented on several drafts of this novel. Thanks to Hayley Katzen, Sarah Armstrong, Amanda Skelton and Emma Ashmere for your friendship, constructive suggestions, delightful humour and title ideas.
Thanks to family and friends for all your support and encouragement, especially Sally, Marg and Aimee who provided a welcoming second home during many of my travels.
And thanks to my partner, Andi Davey, who absolutely hates the cold but has nevertheless supported me with steadfast love and great coffee for the past three years while my mind has been in the snow.