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Joint American-British Station.
On November 21, 1966 the United States Antarctic Program and British Antarctic Survey opened Albaventi Station near Neko Harbour. When the station was opened, originally it was a summer only base and had around 500 scientists each summer, about half being Americans and the other half being Britons. They decided to make the station year round in 1971, and the first winter-over in the base occured in the winter of 1972. American scientist Christopher John Robbins had began working in the station during the summer of 1974, and had done his first winter-over in 1977. During his winter-over he noticed that conditions of the station were very poor. After the winter-over, Robbins and others had made multiple complaints to the USAP and BAS and they kept denying requests to come and perform maintenance on the station. During the summer of 1977-1978 Robbins gathered others working in the station who also filed complaints and they had decided they would declare independence during the next winter-over. Rumor of the independence movement had spread to the USAP and BAS but they dismissed the threats. On June 23, 1978, in the cafeteria of the station a declaration of independence was read aloud, establishing the "Antarctic Free Republic".