I work for the Australian Antarctic Division so I just thought I'd share some VW related stuff.






And this is what we use nowdays.

no probs with overheating

that looks pretty well bogged.

great pics thanks

Nice pics,whatever that is that is bogged is certainly stuck. A lot of years ago the VW dealers had Antarctica 1or2 jigsaw puzzles as give aways.

Yes,
whatever is under the snow??
probably has tracks... no wheels...

The beetles down there did have problems with the chassis cracking etc..
also the doors were blown forwards with the VERY high winds down there....
Did You evere meet Jenna Kelley down there..?
not sure how long ago she was down there...
She is a rally driver and navigator...
[not at the same time lol ].

Rob Boardman is on here... He lives in South Australia..
I have met Him...

cheers

LEE

That first pic is the clearest shot I have ever seen of the second VW, Antarctica 2. It was a '64 model, painted in 'International Orange'. It replaced the original 1962½ Beetle Antarctica 1 (which was 'Ruby Red'), after the first car's 12 months at Mawson in 1963-64. As far as we can tell, Antarctica 2 spend four years there and came home in 1968. It ended up as Chris Heyer's race Beetle at the Catalina Rallycross series at Katoomba in the early 1970s, and was later sold to Ed Mulligan. After that it disappeared, probably stripped for parts and junked. The third photo is also Antarctica 2.

The second photo is from the 'VW Review' magazine, put out by VW Australia at the time (that issue is a collector's item). It shows the original ruby red Antarctica 1, alongside the Porsche-engined Snow Tracs used by ANARE at the time. Apart from the darker colour, the door logo is different. Antarctica 1 returned to Australia in 1964 and was entered in the 1964 BP Rally. Driven by Ray Christie, it amazingly won the event. After that it went on display tours of the VW dealers in Victoria, NSW and SA for a number of years, but it disappeared after that. No one knows what happened to it, but it would have been pretty ratty by that stage. It was the frame head, not the chassis, that suffered from cracking. The '64 had the VW accessory frame braces fitted.

Yes I have one of the jigsaws of Antarctica 1 - the classic shot of the Beetle with the penguins. Great photos - thanks!

Here is a photo of A1 and A2 togther at Mawson during the vehicle changover. Both vehicles have the same ANARE door logo and dummy number plates. The photo of the orange vehicle has a very different logo on the door and I think maybe be the Antarctica 3 vehicle.

The second photo is A1 at the Seymour VIC dealership on display after winning the BP Rally as Phil points out.

Hi Bill,

I think the orange car is the same one, with the door logo simply changed with a new decal at some stage. The Aussie flag on the rear quarter is the same. The top photo shows the running boards quite dented, so it's been there a while. Also the custom front plate is missing (you can see it says 'Antarctica 2' in the joint photo). I am not yet convinced there WAS an 'Antarctica 3'; Chris Heyer has told us that he took over Antarctica 2 after it had been down there for four years and as far as I know, it was the last one (apart from privately owned vehicles). If anyone has an 'A2-A3' changeover pic then I would love to see it!

It is such a pity that the original A1 disppeared. Bill did you have any luck tracing its Victorian number plate history to find its last registered owner?

I met the guy who had taken the originall picture's in Braidwood in 99, he was in his late 60's, went back in 03 and said G'day..., he wasn't well then so i hope he's still around. In 99 he'd shown me the negative's/ slides of the pictures