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Friday, 7 December, 2001, 14:28 GMT
Scott's hut needs urgent repair
![]() The Discovery Hut was built to last five years
By Kim Griggs in Wellington, New Zealand
In February, the first Antarctic home of the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott will be 100 years old. New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust (AHT) wants to make sure that it is not the Discovery Hut's last centenary.
"By a stroke of luck they've lasted a hundred but... they will not last another hundred unless major conservation work is undertaken at these sites." To conserve this unique Antarctic heritage, the trust needs broader - and greater - financial support. Next week, trust representatives will be in the UK, outlining the need for the intensive, and expensive, restoration of these historic buildings. Sticking plaster "Ninety percent of people don't know they are there," said Watson. "Those that do, probably nine out of ten think, 'Oh, they are frozen. They are in Antarctica. Therefore they must be in perfect condition'. And this isn't the case."
Conservation work has been done, but it has been insufficient to stem the decay. "There has been maintenance done in these huts essentially by conservators," said Antarctic huts conservation expert Professor Roberta Farrell. "Most of that was quite 'band aid' and so there's serious work to be done." Very expensive The trust acknowledges the hitherto piecemeal approach to conservation is not enough. "We just don't have the depth of expertise and conservators in New Zealand," said Nigel Watson. "We haven't been able to pay market rates. We've relied on the good will of those conservators."
But the government grant is only seed money: to bring the huts and their artefacts up to scratch will take NZ$20 million ($6m) or even more, well beyond the resources of the New Zealand trust. World support "The project is huge and beyond our resources and that's essentially what we've recognised and we need to go to that international market," Watson said.
"Our message is essentially to brief the British community on the state of the heritage in the Ross Sea, and the fate of that heritage unless more extensive conservation work is done," Watson said. For now, however, Watson acknowledges, "we are very much on the first 10 metres of a 400-metre track".
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