Our Story

Rothera Group was named after a venture by the managing director’s father to Antarctica in the mid 1970’s.

Rothera Research Station is a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) base on the Antarctic Peninsula, located at Adelaide Island. British Antarctic Survey is one of the world’s leading environmental research centres and is responsible for Britain’s scientific research activities on and around the Antarctic continent.

Flight of Adventure

George Harvey, a pilot with BAS, flew a twin otter aircraft from northern Canada through North and South America and then on to Antarctica. He operated the plane in the region for a period of 6 months before returning home to his family in Scotland. The aircraft was used mainly to transport scientists between bases and experimental sites. It also supported the development of a new research station named Rothera.

A map of the area and more information about the Rothera research station can be found here.

Rothera Research Station

Rothera Research Station, was established in 1975 to replace Adelaide Island Station where the glacier ski-way (an ice-runway) had deteriorated meaning that ski-equipped aircraft could no longer operate safely.

Rothera research station is now the principal BAS logistics centre for support of Antarctic field science. You can see more about the work of BAS on their website.

Gallery

A selection of the original photographs taken by George Harvey during his trip in 1975 is shown below.  Please click on any image to see a larger version of it.