Description of Operational Facilities

I thought to let you know how the place looks like. The "Guide for Personnel Preparing to Visit Raoul Island" I received is telling the following about it:

The main station is located at Fleetwood Bluff on the northern terraces. The hostel complex includes the hostel itself, the sleeping annex, a small “hospital”, a dry store and a walk-in freezer and cool store. To the west there is a generator shed and workshop, implement sheds and further to the west again, the met station, aerial farm and “bomb shed” (where met balloons are filled with hydrogen). The “woolshed”, a back-up accommodation facility, is located on the western side of Bell’s Ravine.

There is a long grassed airstrip on the terrace east of Ravine 6. This does not currently meet full Civil Aviation commercial standards and can only be used for emergency evacuations or for private aircraft landings where a landing permit is obtained from the Department.

A road extends roughly five kilometres along the terraces, from beyond the western end of the emergency airstrip, east past the hostel to a point above Fishing Rock. There is also a four-wheel drive track extending a further seven kilometres southeast, from above Fishing Rock to Boat Cove.

Fishing Rock is the main sea landing point, with a concrete platform, a derrick and a flying fox, which carries supplies some 300 metres up onto the road-end above the coastal cliffs. While moderately sheltered during southerly winds, this landing is on an exposed coast and can often not be worked because of heavy sea conditions. The majority of heavy stores are now off-loaded from ships by helicopter, however this is not always possible and servicing via Fishing Rock will be necessary on occasions.
Fishing Rock is also the main point for launching boats. Surf conditions are generally too rough to permit launching across the beach except on rare occasions.

There is no running water on Raoul Island except during rain, but there are two low volume springs on the northern slopes, which provide the station with potable water. The main supply is at Western Springs, some three kilometres west of the station, well up the steep western escarpment. This is piped to a filtration plant at the top of the old orchard above the met station, and then to two 20,000-litre tanks. The second spring (Dripping Well) is in Bell’s Ravine to the west of the tanks.

Fire hydrants, which are connected to the main supply system, are strategically located around the station. There is also a 60,000 litre open topped tank adjacent to the hostel, which provides a back-up water supply for the Wajax fire pump. This doubles as a swimming pool.

A network of tracks and four outlying huts were developed during the goat eradication operation in the 1970s. The huts were also maintained for the cat and rat eradication operation which was carried out in 2002. These are used today principally for the weed control operation, but they are also able to be used by staff on their days off. The huts are on the Hutchison’s Bluff ridge in the west, Denham Bay (the most commonly used hut); Mahoe, at the head of Sunshine Valley, and at the road end above Boat Cove. Tracks largely follow ridge tops and, if not maintained, very quickly become overgrown.