Rachael Robertson had never considered, dreamed of or planned to go to Antarctica.
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A newspaper advertisement, a desire to learn about how to hire people with empathy and a big decision to avoid feelings of regret led to a year on the continent as the leader of the 58th annual expedition in 2005.
A picture of a penguin in The Courier was the beginning of Ms Robertson's Antarctic story.
The picture caught her eye and she noticed the advertisement was to recruit for station leader in Antarctica, but the advertisement was looking for personal attributes like resilience, empathy and integrity.
It was a matter of regret what I did rather than regret what I didn't do.
- Rachael Robertson
Leading a customer service team at the time and struggling to find staff with empathy, Ms Robertson applied for the role.
She hoped she could make it to the interview stage to learn how they were recruiting and steal the interview questions to help her own recruitment battles.
It turned out there was no interview stage, but a bootcamp in Tasmania competing against 13 men.
To her surprise, Ms Robertson was offered the job and she accepted it.
"I couldn't stand the thought of what if," she said.
"It was a matter of regret what I did rather than regret what I didn't do.
"Then the enormity of it hit me."
There was three months of training before embarking to Antarctica.
It included firefighter training, because there, they would be the firefighters.
"We had to crawl through the dark in a smoke filled shipping container," Ms Robertson said.
"That is the second I realised this was pretty serious. I am an accidental expeditioner."
There was one doctor on the team.
Two carpenters did two weeks training at Hobart Hospital to become theatre nurses and the IT workers did two weeks training to become anaesthetic assistants.
Ms Robertson was severely sea sick for the two-and-a-half week trip to Antarctica on an icebreaker that was designed to ride up on the waves and then come crashing down.
She described it like being in a 'washing machine'.
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More than 100 people of the 120 on the ship were sick on the journey.
One hundred and twenty people live on the Australian station in Antarctica during summer, mainly scientists doing climate change research.
When summer ends, the ship takes out the summer crew and does not return for nine months, leaving 18 people led by Ms Robertson in the winter crew.
The winter crew is tasked with asset management until the scientists return. There is no way in or out during the winter months and long dark nights can last for weeks.
"For the next nine months these 18 people were my life, in complete isolation, in complete lockdown. It is a very emotional day when the others go and leave us behind," Ms Robertson said.
The team was diverse, in age, religion, background and personality.
Ms Robertson said respect was the team's most important mantra.
"We didn't expect we would all like each other, but we did expect we would treat each other with respect," she said.
"The mantra for us was respect trumps harmony. I worry about teams that strive for harmony about all else.
"Any bullying or harassment goes unreported. If you focus on harmony you can't innovate as people don't offer a difference of opinion or conflicting view.
"If you focus just on harmony people get hurt because people walk past and say I don't want to get involved in that. A team built just on harmony will be terrible in crisis."
Ms Robertson said she implemented the 'no triangle rule' as a pillar of respect and integrity in the team.
"I don't speak to you about him and you don't speak to me about her. Have the integrity and professionalism to go to the person if they have upset you. Let's have direct conversations," she said.
Ms Robertson said another key learning was to deal with the little issues early as they could represent bigger rifts.
She referred to the 'bacon wars' on the station, arguments over whether to cook crispy or soft bacon.
When it was her day to cook, Ms Robertson made both.
"I started to identify all the little things that happen in teams and it came down to a lack of respect," she said.
"Now is a perfect time to get rid of your bacon wars. They are a symptom of a deeper issue, it is about lack of respect. People can start obsessing about them."
Ms Robertson said a proud moment throughout the challenging 12 months was seeing her team members step up and show leadership.
A plane crash standard four of her team members 500 kilometres away with 10 days of food on board.
Ms Robertson was part of the six member search and rescue team and had not slept for three days.
They came back to the station at 10pm, having missed all meals, to find the diesel mechanic had plated up food for each of them labelled with their names.
"That is amazing leadership. Leadership isn't a title, it is seeing something that needs to be done and doing something about it," she said.
"In the scheme of things it was a small thing. 113 people did nothing but one person looked up and thought what can I do to help, I'll make sure the leadership team get fed.
"Encourage your team to lead without a title."
The rescue team found the stranded crew members on day five.
Ms Robertson said returning to Australia and 'normal' life after a year with the same 17 people, a year without driving, a year without a mobile phone and media was overwhelming.
She said it was important for leaders to show empathy and respect as many people in Ballarat in Victoria's Central Highlands right now would be feeling anxiety and feelings of overwhelm coming out of lockdowns.
"If you do have staff that are feeling overwhelmed, tell your staff to control what you can control," she said.
"If you can't control something, all you can control is how you respond to it. Break it down into little pieces. What are you going to do the next day, the next month?"
Ms Robertson said she missed Antarctica but she could not take on the role again as the scrutiny of the leadership, being a leader 24 hours a day, seven days a week, was too much.
"I was the leader there from the minute I got up to going to bed. I could never relax, it was exhausting," she said.
Ms Robertson moved to Ballarat in 2000 and lived in the city for about four years.
Committee for Ballarat chief executive said Rachael's speech was inspiring and insightful and delivered with a great touch of Australian humour.
"Rachael's experience leading in perhaps the harshest environment on the planet resonated strongly with Committee and aligned well to our strategic objective in building the capacity of community leadership," he said.
The Committee for Ballarat round table dinner also featured live music from The Pierce Brothers and a celebration of Future Shapers who are wrapping up their year of leadership learning.