As if working 70-hours a week through an Antarctic winter wasn’t difficult enough, a north Queensland man has also finished a degree in his downtime.

October 2, 2018

North Queensland man Zach Lockhard has worked in plenty of remote locations before but never one that was dark 24-hours a day.

And as if working a 70-hour-week in minus 30C during the Antarctic winter wasn’t already tough enough, the Cairns local-turned-adventurer also knocked off a degree in his downtime.

Just surviving the extreme cold would have been challenging enough for most people but the instrument electrician set himself the extra goal of finishing a four-year engineering degree between shifts.

“A typical day of the semester would begin with a 4am coffee followed by an hour of studying and then a quick walk to the gym through the snow, often with a bright green aurora dancing on the horizon,” Mr Lockhard said.

The 28-year-old said the patchy internet access made study difficult but reading his textbooks while warming up in the base’s spa at the end of a long shift more than made up for it.

The surfer and amateur photographer has worked in plenty of other extreme and beautiful locations, from the Solomon Islands to Christmas Island, and central Australia.

But he said watching the penguins play with elephant seals while icebergs change colour from a ghostly blue to gold as the sun rises during breakfast trumps them all.

“It’s has been an amazing experience. Helicopter flights over glaciers and daily sightings of seals and Adelie penguins by the tens of thousands,” he said.

“Antarctica was the pinnacle of everything I had dreamed of.”

He’s now counting the days until he feels the north Queensland sand between his toes again and can start applying the skills gained in Antarctica, to a career in project management.