Erebus memorial to get $3m
The Government has agreed to spend $3 million on a memorial for the victims of the Erebus plane crash, but has still to announce where it will be located.
The memorial will remember the 257 passengers and crew who died when an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashed into the lower slopes of Mt Erebus in Antarctica at 12.49pm (NZ time) on November 28, 1979.
The $3 million funding was approved by Cabinet on Monday, and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has called for expressions of interest from
designers, architects, artists, and landscape architects.
While it had been hoped the memorial might have been ready by the 40th anniversary of the tragedy, the ministry said in July the amount of work involved meant it would not be dedicated until the first half of 2020.
Rev Dr Richard Waugh, of the Erebus National Memorial group, said he commended the continuing progress on the project. ‘‘And we’re looking forward to more details about the actual site.’’
Manatu¯ Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage memorials and taonga manager Brodie Stubbs said the aim was to have the memorial completed by May
2020. ‘‘It will be in Auckland and we’re just working through the consultation and approvals process at the moment before we can confirm the particular site,’’ he said. The ministry was interested in a specific site but couldn’t announce it yet.
It was relying on the land being freely available, with the $3m funding to be spent on design and construction.
The call for expressions of interest would close in about three weeks, and a short list of probably six proposals would be drawn up to be developed into actual designs, Stubbs said.
The aim was to have a final design approved in May 2019.