ONE of the most intrepid characters of Australia's Antarctic program is safe and ready to add another adventure to two astonishing decades of Antarctic travel.

The battered fibreglass seeing-eye dog called Stay is famous as an icon and mascot of Australian expeditioners and is probably the most widely travelled Antarctic explorer of all time.

She was photographed patiently waiting on the sea ice beside a Chinese helicopter during yesterday's rescue operation.

Stay began life as a Guide Dog fundraiser, collecting coins on the streets of Hobart.

Purloined by a group of drunken expeditioners in Hobart in 1991 as part of an obscure protest against the removal of huskies from Australian stations, Stay has travelled the frozen continent and beyond ever since.

She has voyaged by ship, plane, helicopter and skiddoo and visited every Australian station, including Macquarie and Heard Islands, and has spent summers in field camps in the Prince Charles Mountains and on Bechervaise Island and has even visited Roald Amundsen's memorial at Spitzbergen in the high Arctic and the stations of other Antarctic nations.

Jesse Blackadder wrote a book called Stay: The Last Dog in Antarctica and said the high-profile rescue is typical of Stay's adventures.

"Stay was left at Mawson's Hut in January 2012 after being flown into Commonwealth Bay with the landing party for the Mawson centenary commemorations," she said.

"No one knew at the time it would be two years before she could be rescued, as a large iceberg blocked Commonwealth Bay after the expedition left.

"Rumour has it that Stay will now be handed over to expeditioners at Australia's sub-Antarctic research station on Macquarie Island to start her next adventure."

Acting Antarctic Division director Jason Mundy said he didn't dare predict Stay's next move.

"Stay will be on the vessel when it arrives at Casey," he said. "Stay's movements are a bit mysterious."

Stay lost a leg in controversial circumstances at Mawson station in 1993 although it was later replaced by a wooden prosthetic lovingly made by one of base's carpenters.

In the late 1990s she was "imprisoned" by head office staff at Kingston but was later liberated and taken south once more.

Dognapping the careworn statue and taking her on a new adventure has become a cherished tradition of Australian expeditioners.

She is now on her way to Casey Station.

david.killick@news.com.au