AN ILL-FATED ROUTE

THE ABOVE MAP shows the tragic fatal journey and the two glaciers that were later named for Mertz and Ninnis.

A new memorial to the ill-fated pair of young explorers will soon be unveiled in Mawson Place on Hobart’s waterfront, opposite the Mawson’s Huts Replica Museum. An initiative of the Mawson’s

Huts Foundation, and jointly funded by the the Swiss and UK governments and Ninnis’s former regiment The Royal Fusiliers, the monument will feature bronze commemorative plaques set into an imposing, rough-hewn piece of Tasmanian dolerite, geologically identical to the rocks of Cape Denison. The Swiss flag and the crest of the Royal Fusiliers will also adorn the new memorial.

A simple, poignant wooden memorial cross, erected by colleagues, honours the memories of Mertz and Ninnis atop Azimuth Hill at Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay.