Our Antarctic Gateway

Past events

Antarctic Season Opening 2024-25

Our annual Reception to celebrate the start of the Antarctic Season has become an important feature of the sector's social calendar, providing all the people involved a unique opportunity to come together to acknowledge the important role they have.

At the event we are always proud to welcome the many expeditioners who are due to depart on the first voyage of the season, usually within days of the event.

We also celebrate the key organisations, businesses, and supporters of the sector who are behind so much of the activities within our city that contribute to Australia been able to undertake these activities, and having such a leading role in Antarctic matters world-wide.

All these people are part of a critically important sector, contributing to both the local and international communities with their science and research, their participation in global governance, their technical skills and experiences and their unique and innovative products that support Antarctic projects.

City of Hobart is proud to see all the activities that occur within our Antarctic Gateway City which supports both Australia's, but also many other nations, Antarctic programs.

Australia Antarctic Festival 2024

The Australian's Antarctic Festival was held from 22 to 25 August 2024 at various locations across Hobart's waterfront. The Mawson's Hut Foundation does an amazing job of bringing together our Antarctic sector to showcase the scale and significance of our world leading Antarctic capabilities.

Over 20 000 students and families came along to experience this magical place from afar, discovering the incredible research and science we do in Hobart and learning how many global partnerships we have that help our researchers and expeditioners do their important work in the Southern Ocean and on the ice.

As a proud gateway city, we were a major partner of this free community festival. This year we supported a special screening of family favourite ‘Happy Feet’ and had an Antarctic Gateway Cities Scavenger Hunt running across the entire festival.

The next festival will be held in 2026.

Supporting inaugural visit by RV Polarstern

For the first time ever the German icebreaker the RV Polarstern is visited Hobart. While here, the ship's owners, the Alfred Wegener Institute, held a public exhibition from 3-4 February 2024 at the Waterside Pavilion to highlight the inaugural port call, highlighting the ship's research and science capabilities and programs, as well as a photography exhibition.

Following the exhibition, the German Embassy in Canberra hosted a Climate Talk at the Waterside Pavilion on 5 February. The focus of the talk is 'Has the Antarctic reached its tipping point? The global effects of melting ice in the wake of climate change', and this will be the first in a series of Climate Talks the German Embassy will be delivering across Australia.

As a welcoming Antarctic Gateway City, City of Hobart proudly assisted in the on-ground organising and promotion of the public exhibition and talk, in collaboration with Antarctica Tasmania, Department of State Growth.

Antarctic Day Conference 2023: Public Engagement with Antarctic: Connections from Afar

In recognition of the importance of public engagement in our Antarctic Gateway, City of Hobart partnered with UTAS to deliver this year's Antarctica Day conference, Public Engagement with Antarctica: Connections from Afar.

Speakers presented on a fascinating range of topics, including Antarctica at Home; Indigenous Perspectives; Engaging Science, Engaging Arts; and Antarctica Then and Now: Curating Antarctic Stories.

The afternoon workshops focused on two questions: what does Antarctic engagement mean in Hobart, and how can we forge connections into the future?

This was followed by an international panel discussion, More than Just Penguins? Bringing Antarctica alive for people back home, sharing the diverse successes, obstacles and opportunities related to connecting with a place that most of us will never visit.

Antarctica Day 2023 Conference Report(PDF, 2MB)

Antarctic Day is celebrated international each year on 1 December in recognition of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty.

Antarctic Season Opening 2023-24

The City of Hobart hosted a reception on Tuesday, 3 October 2023 at the Waterside Pavilion to celebrate the start of the 2023-24 Antarctic season. Over 120 people representing the sector attended, including many expeditioners who were days aways from heading south. Mrs Hanna Pappalardo, Consul General of Italy based in Melbourne attended as guest speaker.

The City of Hobart is excited by the opportunities to engage with so many international programs this season with the Port of Hobart hosting several icebreakers including from France, Italy, Germany and China, in addition to Australia's RSV Nuyina.

At the Reception we recognised the expertise and experiences of the Australian sector. We also acknowledged that this season will be the greatest opportunity in recent years for the city to strengthen our role as an Antarctic leader and showcase local products, capabilities, and services to customers of Hobart's Antarctic Gateway.

COMNAP Conference | Hobart 2023

The 2023 Search & Rescue Workshop, AGM and Symposium for the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) was held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hobart from 23 - 29 June.

Member programs are organisations that have responsibility for delivering and supporting scientific research in the Antarctic Treaty Area on behalf of their respective governments and in the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty.

This was an opportunity to promote Hobart's gateway role and strengthen relationships through engaging with conference delegates.

City of Hobart had Antarctic Gateway banners up around the city and outside Town Hall while the conference is on, support on the Tasmanian trade stand and participated in meetings with key stakeholders and delegates.

The Lord Mayor hosted a Reception for key sector representatives and delegates representing other Antarctic Gateway Cites to promote our desire for collaboration.

Our long history of providing logistical and technical support to enable exploration of Antarctica and our leadership in governance, science and research on the ice and in the Southern Ocean is our city's most unique, and highly regarded strength.

Overtime, Hobart's waterfront has been defined by our role in Antarctic expeditions and dotted along it are memorial plaques, brass statues and even a replica of Mawson's Hut, Australia's first science and geographical base in Antarctica over a century ago.

Our Antarctic sector is supported by 950 jobs and is worth $160 million to our local economy. Many of those working in the Antarctic sector live in and contribute to the vibrancy of our city.

Our port (operated by TasPorts) has been home to several of Australia's Antarctic icebreakers, including Australia's state-of-the-art icebreaker the RSV Nuyina, the most advanced polar research ship in the world.

We regularly welcome other nations' icebreakers, with each visit to our port injecting up to $2 million into our local economy.

Hobart's International Airport facilitates direct flights to the Antarctic for expeditioners.

Our specialist Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) is number one for studying the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, and we rank in the top ten worldwide across various specialist fields including marine and freshwater biology, oceanography and fisheries.

The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is also ranked number one for climate action.

Right next to IMAS, is the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Hobart's facilities. Here CSIRO focuses on marine and atmospheric research and it is also the home of Australia's dedicated ocean research vessel the RV Investigator.

Key international organisations have headquarters in our city such as the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), who bring conferences, delegations and diplomats into the city to discuss critical issues on the protection and future management of Antarctica.

City of Hobart is an active member and supporter of the Tasmanian Polar Network (TPN) and its sub-committee the Tasmanian Antarctic Women's Network.

Our CEO is a member of the Tasmanian Antarctic Gateway (TAG) Advisory Committee. The advisory group is made up of executive representatives from key organisations that support our Antarctic Gateway, is a platform for a coordinated whole of government and industry approach to the implementation of the Tasmania Government's Antarctic Gateway Strategy 2022-27.

We are committed to seeing our Antarctic sector's advantages, values and strengths maximised and showcasing our city as a centre of Antarctic excellence, in science, logistics, specialised polar products, medicine, policy and international Antarctic diplomacy.

We proudly support our sector by:

• providing a warm welcome to dignitaries, conference delegates and representatives of international Antarctic programs who visit (e.g. COMNAP)
• actively participating in relationships and collaborations with other Antarctic Gateway Cities and national programs, based on shared values and goals
• facilitating community interest and connectivity with Antarctica and our Antarctic sector (e.g. bi-annual Antarctic Festival, annual Antarctica Day celebrations, public art, skills expos)
• publicly recognising and supporting our extraordinary Antarctic sector and its workforce (e.g. hosting an annual reception to mark the start of the Antarctic Summer, supporting our Antarctic Women's Network, speaking at UTAS Antarctica Day conference)
• promoting the extraordinary climate, science, research, marine and logistics capabilities of our sector to domestic and international audiences (e.g. participating in Trade & Investment Missions, promoting through Invest Hobart)
• contributing to the development and delivery of local policies and strategies such as the Tasmanian Antarctic Gateway Strategy 2022-2027, through membership on the Tasmanian Antarctic Gateway and the Hobart City Deal
• increasing our city's capacity to accommodate the growth of our Antarctic sector
• advocating for significant investment in city infrastructure, capabilities and capacity to allow the sector to continue to provide leadership in the Antarctic
• showing leadership in developing and achieving a future vision for the sector
• facilitating information and action on climate change and its links to Antarctica
• being an active contributor to the Antarctic sector ecosystem, engaging in opportunities for increased connectively, information sharing and business and skill development (e.g. as member of the Tasmanian Polar Network).

Our commitment to Our Antarctic Gateway(PDF, 274KB) 

Hobart, Australia, Christchurch, New Zealand, Punta Arenas, Chile, Ushuaia, Argentina and Cape Town, South Africa are internationally recognised as Antarctic Gateway Cities, as they are the most connected to Antarctica in the world, by location and by the activities that goes on within these cities.

A report jointly commissioned by gateways in 2021 identified the leading role gateways have in Antarctica's future, spurring the the five cities to actively strengthen their relationships and collaboration.

Read full report here: Antarctic Cities: From Gateways to Custodial Cities(PDF, 11MB)

Each Antarctic Gateway City is unique. Here are some interesting facts about them.

Hobart, Australia

Hobart's port is the home of Australia's icebreaker the RSV Nuyina which expeditioners travel to Antarctica on, as well as do work on board.

Nuyina means southern lights in palawa kani, the language of Tasmanian Aborigines. The glowing green southern lights, known as the Aurora Australis, can be seen from Hobart.

Hobart has the most researchers and scientists in the southern hemisphere, with many working and studying at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS). Lots of world leading work around the impacts of climate change on Antarctica is happening here.

Sir Douglas Mawson was Australia's greatest polar explorer, claiming part of Antarctica as Australian territory. The Mawson Huts were the main base by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14 led by Mawson. Today the site is world heritage listed and there is a replica on Hobart's waterfront.

Christchurch, New Zealand

Over 100 flights take off from Christchurch International Airport every Antarctic season, safely delivering researchers, expeditioners and supplies to different stations across the continent.

Christchurch has many iconic murals including the large Crevasse Mural which was commissioned to celebrate Christchurch's Antarctic Gateway City status.

There are many husky statues around Christchurch which honour the many dogs used in early expeditions. Across from the busy Lyttelton Port there is a small island where the huskies were kept before going on expeditions.

The Magnetic Observatory in Christchurch's Botanical Gardens was where early expeditioners studied the earth's magnetic field. This helped explorers navigate their journey to Antarctica and home again.

Ushuaia, Argentina

Ushuaia is popular for Antarctic tourism as it is only three days sailing to reach Antarctica. There are many jobs for people to be tour guides and crew on the ships.

Argentina's icebreaker the Almirante Irizar docks in Ushuaia. It is built to sail in the most extreme conditions. Ushuaia is also a base for many other Antarctic programs and their icebreakers.

As a city, Ushuaia proudly marks its history and encourages education around its Antarctic activities. It has an Antarctic Explorers Walk, Antarctic Museum and Library.

On the 120th anniversary of Argentina in the Antarctic, 11 large murals were painted across the city in celebration.

Punta Arenas, Chile

More than 20 countries use Punta Arenas's port and airport as a gateway to the icy continent. Antarctic cruises also leave from here.

Punta Arenas celebrates its Antarctic hero Piloto Pardo, a naval officer famous for his role in the dramatic rescue of early Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition in 1916. His statue is a famous landmark in the city.

Isla Magdalena, near Punta Arenas, is home to thousands of Magellanic penguins which are an important part of the Antarctic ecosystem.

Punta Arenas has the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) where lots of scientific research and international cooperation happens.

Cape Town, South Africa

The Port of Cape Town, located in East Pier Harbour, sits at the bottom of Cape Town's Table Mountain, at the southern tip of the African continent.

The SA Agulhas II is South Africa's icebreaker. In 2022 the SA Agulhas II was part of an expedition in the Weddell Sea that discovered the wreck of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship the Endurance.

Antarctic tourism is growing in Cape Town. Tour company White Desert flies private charters from Cape Town to Antarctica. These flights are for both tourists and researchers.

In Cape Town there is an enormous metal statue of a penguin which is set on a base of single use plastics to highlight the damage caused to our oceans.