31 May 2016

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Creating a national Antarctic research, science and tourism hub at Christchurch Airport is an ambitious goal from the new Antarctic Office.

An “Antarctic precinct”, created around an expanded International Antarctic Centre attraction, would give Christchurch an iconic focal point similar to Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum in Spain, Antarctic Office director Eric Assendelft said.

The Antarctic Office was established earlier this year by Christchurch City Council with the aim of aim of building Christchurch’s identity and status as a gateway to Antarctica and co-ordinating between a range of agencies.

Dr Assendelft heads the office, which is currently developing a strategy and liaising with national programmes such as the United States Antarctic Programme and other stake-holders, including central government. He believes the potential economic benefits for the city from Antarctic tourism, research and technology are huge.

A study in 2013 found the economic impact of Antarctica-related activities was $103 million per annum for the Canterbury economy and $162 million for New Zealand.

The Antarctic Office has put together a business case for a National Antarctic Research and Science Hub, to be built on Christchurch Airport land. It would provide a research facility with four large modular laboratories that could be leased to local and international scientists.

The labs would have specialist capabilities such as extreme cold freezers, ultra-dry environments and aquariums. Samples of rock, soil or marine life could be brought back from Antarctica for research to be carried out here in a bio-secure environment, meaning normal quarantine regulations would not need to be followed. There could also be accommodation facilities for scientists on site and potential for visitors to see scientists at work inside the laboratories, separated by glass walls.

The facility, modelled on the Smithsonian Institute in the United States and the Agri-Bio facility in Victoria, would foster greater collaboration between scientists, boost the credibility of local researchers, and increase public awareness of their work, Mr Assendelft said. 

“It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to get scientists and their support staff out on the ice. With increasing pressure on science budgets as well as a desire to reduce the human footprint in Antarctica, the research facility creates a great opportunity for scientists from here and overseas to actually conduct more research on critical issues such as climate change.

“We’ve discussed this with a number of international partners and they’re very keen on being involved. Having something like this for Christchurch would also create something quite iconic for the city and it screams out the whole Antarctic story.”

Dr Assendelft said scientists from Britain, Italy, South Korea and the Netherlands had expressed interest in the proposed hub and a developer has been identified. The Antarctic Office will be working on a commercial case over the next six to 12 months and the goal is for it to become a reality in about five years’ time.

Christchurch is one of five gateways to Antarctica. The other gateways are:  Hobart, Australia, Capetown, South Africa, Ushuaia in Argentina and Punta Arenas in Chile.