Australia intends to significantly expand its research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the coming years. Dr Patricia Miloslavich, head of the Antarctic Monitoring Programme at the Australian Antarctic Division, presented four planned campaigns at the Australian Antarctic Research Conference in Hobart. Around 400 researchers from around the world attended. The campaigns cover ice, sea ice, krill and marine ecosystems, and the research icebreaker RSV Nuyina will play a key role.
The four campaigns run across the coming Antarctic seasons
On the continent, the Million Year Ice Core Project is continuing. The aim is to extract ice from deep within the East Antarctic ice sheet that preserves at least one million years of climate history. Scientific work is also being carried out along the route from Casey Station to the drilling site in the interior. At Dome C North, the project uses a specially developed deep-drilling system. The target is an ice core more than three kilometres long, which may contain climate data spanning up to two million years. During the 2025/26 season, the borehole reached a depth of 400.68 metres.
The 2027/28 season will see the launch of KaKE, the Krill and Krill Ecosystems campaign. Its aim is to investigate the state of the krill-based ecosystem in the Mawson region. Antarctic krill forms a key food source for whales, seals, penguins and numerous seabirds.
The Marginal Ice Zone Expedition 2028/29 is planned for the time of the annual maximum sea ice extent. The plan is unusual because researchers intend to study the marginal zone of the Antarctic sea ice in September. Direct observations from this time of year have been comparatively few.
The ECCO Expedition, East Antarctic Ecosystems-CCAMLR, Climate and Ocean, is planned for 2029/30. It builds on KaKE and aims to provide data on krill, biodiversity, the ocean and climate. Among other things, the results are intended to improve the scientific basis for potential marine protected areas in East Antarctica.
RSV Nuyina carries the shipboard science
Scientists on board the RSV Nuyina are examining organisms and samples from the Southern Ocean. The ship's specially equipped laboratories allow krill, plankton and other marine organisms to be analysed immediately after sampling. As Australia's most important floating research platform, the vessel will facilitate research into sea ice, the ocean, krill and climate during the upcoming expeditions.
The new campaigns form part of Australia's research strategy. They are also integrated into the international Antarctica InSync programme, which aims to coordinate international observations of ice, the ocean, the atmosphere, climate and ecosystems in 2027/28 and 2028/29.
Long-term voyage data show the scale of the effort
Between 1990 and 2026, Australian, French and CSIRO research vessels completed 379 voyages. Those voyages covered almost 2.5 million kilometres and collected around 137 million measurements. The figure shows why the new campaigns are built around long-term shipboard observation rather than one-off cruises.
A practical question follows from the plan: how the international Antarctica InSync observation windows in 2027/28 and 2028/29 will be coordinated with the national campaign schedules. That is the detail worth asking the Australian Antarctic Division about as the season dates are confirmed.