Imagine waking up and stepping outside where the temperature has fallen to minus 56 degrees Celsius.
The sun has disappeared. There is no fresh fruit or vegetables, and your body has lost all sense of day and night.
It may sound like another world, but this isn’t fiction – this is Antarctica.
For Curtin Civil Engineering graduate Matty Jordan, this was his reality for over a year.
For 450 days across eight expeditions, Matty lived and worked at New Zealand’s Scott Base research station in Antarctica, one of the most remote and unforgiving places on Earth.
What began as a dream opportunity quickly became one of the most challenging experiences of his life when he spent the winter there in 2023.
Outside, Matty said the cold was so extreme that every movement required preparation, while inside, the endless darkness began to take its toll.
“This was arguably one of the hardest situations I have voluntarily put myself in,’’ he said.
“Sleep was super challenging.
“It’s so dark outside that you lose your circadian rhythm as there are no triggers telling your body that it’s time to go to sleep.”
Food was another reminder of just how far from home Antarctica was.
“There was no fresh fruit or vegetables, so we were mostly eating tinned fruit and frozen veggies, which was difficult at times,” he said.
Yet somewhere in the darkness, something changed.
The more time Matty spent in Antarctica, the more he began to see it not simply as a place of extremes, but as a place that could teach us something about our own planet – and ourselves.
For almost a decade, he has worked alongside world-leading scientists and researchers, witnessing firsthand the changes taking place across the frozen continent.
He has seen landscapes that have been documented for generations and heard from scientists who have spent decades returning to the same places.
“Talking to scientists who have worked in Antarctica for more than 30 years and comparing photos from the 60s to now, there is a very noticeable change in the landscape,” he said.
“Working in Antarctica you literally have a historic record of the Earth’s climate right in front of you – it really is the Earth’s best laboratory.”
It was a perspective Matty felt compelled to share.
He began documenting his life in Antarctica on social media, initially simply to answer the endless questions coming from family and friends back home.
With more videos, his audience grew.
Today he is one of the world’s most widely known Antarctica explorers, with more than two million followers and more than a billion views across social media.
“I never set out to be a content creator,” he said.
What started as a way of keeping people connected to his extraordinary life soon became something much bigger.
Beneath the breathtaking landscapes and spectacular footage, Matty’s message is deeply human.
He wants people to understand what it takes to live and work in one of the most extreme environments on the planet – the isolation, the exhaustion, the uncertainty and the moments of awe that make it all worthwhile.
For Matty, Antarctica is not some distant, frozen wilderness disconnected from the rest of the world. It is a living record of what is happening to our planet.
His social media has become a way to bring that story into millions of homes, making a place that can feel impossibly far away suddenly feel real.
For those who aren’t on social media, his book The Antarcticans brings the continent into their living rooms.
So, how does someone from Curtin end up working in one of the coldest places on Earth?
“Firstly, you don’t need to be a scientist to work here, so let’s bust that myth,” he said.
Instead, he says, the ability to work as part of a small team is one of the most important qualities you can bring with you.
But perhaps the biggest question is not whether you can get there. It’s why you want to go.
“From the outset everything looks exciting, and this has indeed been one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life, but it has also been one of the hardest,’’ he said.
That contrast between extraordinary beauty and extraordinary hardship – is perhaps what Antarctica has taught Matty most.
And sometimes life’s most rewarding experiences are also the ones that demand the most from us.
Matty Jordan, International speaker, content creator and Antarctican Explorer
Graduating from Curtin with a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Construction Engineering (Second Class Honours), Matty has since built an incredible career as the world’s most followed Antarctican with a strong community of more than 2 million people on social media. As a former project manager for New Zealand’s Antarctic Programme, Matty has led challenging construction projects supporting world-leading climate science. Currently, he serves as a Board Director for the Antarctican Society.
