Honour for our huskies

A NEW public artwork celebrating the significant role of huskies in Australia’s exploration of the Antarctic will be unveiled in Hobart later this year.

The bronze sculpture featuring two life-size huskies and a sledge, modelled after one used by explorer Douglas Mawson, is expected to be complete in September.

Commissioned by charity Mawson’s Huts Foundation, the sculpture will be partly funded by a $58,000 grant from the Tasmanian Community Fund. Foundation chairman David Jensen said the sculpture would celebrate Hobart’s historic links with the Antarctic and the foundation hoped it could be installed outside the Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum in Argyle St.

Local artist Dan Tucker said the monument would be sizeable.

“I plan to replicate one of Mawson’s wooden sledges, which is three metres long and with the two dogs being lifesize, the bronze, when complete, will stand 1.2m high, so it will be a substantial piece of art,” Tucker said.

“Now the design has been finalised, I’ve started making a model from which the moulds will be made for casting.”

The foundation will seek approval from the Hobart City Council to install the artwork on the Hobart waterfront.