DAVID HARROWFIELD
The iceman goeth
David Harrowfield first heard stories of Antarctica as a boy. His grandfather attended lectures by Robert Falcon Scott in 1910 and Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1917 and decades later he would recount their tales of endurance and adventure.
Today, Harrowfield is almost 80 and has visited the frozen continent more than 50 times. He was dubbed Antarctica’s first archaeologist in 1977, and has an Antarctic landmark named after him. He last visited the continent in March and has finally decided both his career and his exploring days are over.
Harrowfield was born in Christchurch in 1940, and attended St Albans School. His father, a detective, was posted south, so he transferred to Oamaru South School (now Fenwick Primary) and later attended Waitaki Boys’ High School.
It was there that his fascination with Antarctica was born. ‘‘My first interest in the Antarctic actually began in Oamaru, because near the primary school was amemorial oak tree to Scott,’’ he says.
Antarctica has a brief but fascinating human history. The heroic era of Borchgrevink, Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen will forever be remembered as one of bravery, discovery and tragedy, and Harrowfield remains in awe of those early explorers. ‘‘A lot of these people had never been there before. They were looking at landscapes that were quite foreign to them.
‘‘On the Borchgrevink expedition they were so unfamiliar, they went down with guns because they thought there would be polar bears. They brought the first dogs as well, and they wrought havoc amongst the penguins.’’
In 1958, Harrowfield joined the New Zealand Archaeological Association and was taught the basics of archaeology by Michael Trotter, who would later be director of Canterbury Museum.
They did a number of excavations together, and it was during this period he became interested innew Zealand’s prehistory. ‘‘The first excavation I did on my own was in 1955 at a place where the first archaeology was done in New Zealand, near Oamaru, at the mouth of the Awamoa Creek.’’
Harrowfield later answered an advert for a laboratory technician at the University of Canterbury (UC) and took up the position in 1970. It was there that he undertook his first trip to Antarctica, accompanying deputy vicechancellor Bob Kirk, son of former prime minister Norman Kirk.
‘‘We went to Cape Bird in the summer of ‘74-’75. We mapped the coastline and I then knew that I was going to come back to this place. It grips you. I don’t know what it is. There’s something about the place that is very difficult to describe.’’
Scientific research on the frozen continent brings its own challenges. Fieldwork takes place during the summer months when there is 24-hour sunlight but it is still difficult to work in the harsh conditions.
With permanently frozen ground, Antarctic archaeologists often have to heat the ground before sites can be excavated, and Harrowfield says he has even used a hairdryer to thaw the solid ice. Antarctic researchers increasingly use drones and satellites to survey sites, but many of the methods Harrowfield learned in his early excavations are still in use. ‘‘Techniques have changed quite a lot, but we still use the basics.’’
As his reputation grew, he joined a government sub-committee and helped establish the Antarctic Heritage Trust. In 1979, he was invited aboard one of Air New Zealand’s scenic tours of Antarctica, aweek before flight TE901 crashed into Mt Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.
He also led Antarctic expeditions, where he had overall responsibility for the team. He even had to provide medical treatment when the need arose. ‘‘Once I had to put a stitch in someone’s hand, he says.
‘‘On the second Cape Adare expedition, I had to put a filling in someone’s tooth. He had a few swigs of whisky before he had it done. I smoothed it off withmy finger because he had to eat food. I met him again three years later and he said the temporary filling was still there.’’
Later, Harrowfield would lead tourist excursions to Antarctica, frequently working with Heritage Expeditions in Christchurch. ‘‘I like to think of it as adventure and education. It’s not only enhancing knowledge but creating an awareness of what is there and it’s something you can pass on to other people.’’
According to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, the number of tour companies visiting the continent almost trebled in 20 years, from 15 in 1999, to 44 in 2019. Harrowfield says tours are closely monitored to minimise the impact on the landscape. ‘‘There are strict requirements about wildlife. We would go ashore before any passengers and put up cones and a rope. Within that area only somany (could enter) without disturbing that wildlife.
‘‘You can only have so many people in an historic hut or within the precinct. You can’t souvenir things, you can’t collect rocks or anything like that.’’
New Zealand’s formal role in Antarctica began in 1923 when the Government agreed to make the Ross Sea region a dependency, and Harrowfield says the area deserves a lot more prominence. ‘‘It’s part of New Zealand, just as we have the sub-antarctic islands. At the end of the day, it’s our responsibility.’’
Scott Base – NZ’S permanent headquarters in Antarctica – opened in 1957 and the Ross Dependency is also home to American, Italian, German, South Korean and Chinese stations. Harrowfield says they regularly cooperate, sharing research, resources and logistics. ‘‘That, in my view, is in the true spirit of the Antarctic Treaty.’’
He is now a research associate at Canterbury Museum and thinks he is unlikely to return to Antarctica. He would still like to visit South Georgia in the South Atlantic to see Shackleton’s grave.
If he does not return to the frozen continent, he leaves a lasting legacy. In 1977, he was instrumental in the opening of Canterbury Museum’s Antarctic Gallery. In 1995, hewas awarded a winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to study historic site preservation in the Arctic and in 2018, an Antarctic ridge was named after him.
Harrowfield Hill is on Inexpressible Island and recognises his work as a geographer and historian. The 95m hill is close to where six members of Scott’s ill-fated 1912 Terra Nova expedition survived for 209 days in a snow cave, when their ship was unable to get through the ice to pick them up.
‘‘Inexpressible Island is the site of perhaps the most important event of Scott’s last expedition. The hut is iconic in terms of being the main base accommodation but [the northern party] survived in the ice cave, where the polar party didn’t.’’
Modestly, he says the hill’s name is ‘‘something nice’’ for his two children and three grandchildren. ‘‘It’s a bit embarrassing, really. I’m not into that sort of thing.
‘‘It’s a bugger of a thing to walk up, because it’s rocks. I’ve only been up there once. From the top, you can see right up the Priestley Glacier, Vegetation Island and the Nansen ice sheet on the left. It’s an absolutely magnificent panorama.’’
On the second Cape Adare expedition, I had to put a filling in someone’s tooth.