Australia’s world-class icebreaker RSV Nuyina, operated by Serco, enables the Australian Antarctic Division to make their first major campaign to Heard Island and McDonald Islands in over 20 years
Serco is supporting the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) to make its first dedicated environmental management visit to Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) in more than two decades, on board the RSV Nuyina, which Serco has proudly built and operated in collaboration with the AAD since 2021. Serco is proud to enable the HIMI campaign, which will be delivered over two voyages, totalling 35 days on and around Heard Island.

Credit Pete Harmsen AAD
HIMI is an Australian external territory comprising World Heritage-listed remote islands in the Southern Ocean. The HIMI region teems with globally significant ecology and geoheritage values, being one of the most intact sub-Antarctic ecosystems left on Earth.
Serco is proud to have delivered the RSV Nuyina mission-ready for the campaign, facilitating the AAD’s critical work – advancing globally relevant monitoring and scientific understanding of HIMI, and the surrounding marine environment.
To ensure the AAD can safely venture as far as needed and achieve as many campaign objectives as feasible during the voyages, Serco’s onshore support teams and the ship’s crew have worked collaboratively with the AAD to deliver complex vessel upgrades and logistical planning with efficiency. This includes meticulous safety measures and biosecurity planning to ensure biosecurity procedures can be effectively implemented.
Serco’s RSV Nuyina Master, Captain Gerry O’Doherty, has an extensive maritime career, including previously visiting the HIMI region. Speaking about captaining one of this year’s voyages to Australia’s most remote external territory, Captain O’Doherty said, “It’s an exciting opportunity to return to the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve.
“The management and research activities we support there will have a very real impact on advancing scientific understanding of the world around us, and it’s a privilege to be ensuring Australia’s expeditioners can achieve as much as possible. We’ll be delivering on the operational excellence and safety components to help ensure mission success.”
Serving as a floating scientific laboratory and accommodation for expeditioners, the RSV Nuyina’s diverse, world-class capabilities will be on full display.

Captain Gerry O’Doherty – Credit Katrina Beams Serco
This spans all functions from enabling threatened species population assessments on the islands through to using the vessel’s unique wet well to carry out detailed examinations of marine samples.
The RSV Nuyina provides expeditioners with safe and comfortable accommodation throughout voyages. Serco is proud to ensure that no matter the complexities of a voyage to Antarctica, maintenance tasks are ongoing around the clock and meals are available every two hours.
Serco manages 500 systems on the RSV Nuyina to ensure vessel readiness, spanning 50,000 configurable items with 12,000 planned maintenance tasks assigned. Every year, Serco works with the AAD to deliver up to 50 complex engineering innovations to continually enhance the vessel’s performance. Additionally, the Serco catering team, renowned in Australia and globally for food safety and quality, are proud to deliver a high volume of meals with consistent variety. In the RSV Nuyina’s previous 11-week voyage, the catering team delivered over 30,000 meals and expects to deliver a similar volume again during the HIMI voyages.
“Serco is proud to support the AAD’s multidisciplinary operation to the Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, which is a globally significant project that showcases Australia’s leadership in sub-Antarctic science and deep field capability,” said Ronan Maguire, Serco’s Contract Manager for the RSV Nuyina.
“As with all voyages, we have been partnering closely with the AAD to ensure we can facilitate as much science as possible, as safely as possible.”
The HIMI campaign is part of the RSV Nuyina’s 2025/26 season, also including stops at Casey – Australia’s busiest Antarctic research station – and Australia’s most southerly Antarctic research station, Davis.
These stops will cover a diverse range of resupply and research activities in addition to the ship-supported field campaign at HIMI, from personnel changeovers to cargo resupply and refuelling provisions, all enabled by the vessel’s versatility of capability across maritime logistics, science and resupply.