 In November 1913 , a month before the Aurora returned for the final time , Mawson and the six men remaining at Cape Denison erected a memorial cross for Mertz and Ninnis on Azimuth Hill to the north @-@ west of the main hut . The cross , constructed from pieces of a broken radio mast , was accompanied by a plaque cut from wood from Mertz 's bunk . The cross still stands , although the crossbar has required reattaching several times , and the plaque was replaced with a replica in 1986 . The first glacier the Far Eastern Party crossed on the outward journey — previously unnamed — was named by Mawson after Mertz , becoming the Mertz Glacier . At a speaking engagement upon his return to Australia , Mawson praised his dead comrades : " The survivors might have an opportunity of doing something more , but these men had done their all . " At another , Mawson said that " Dr. Mertz was a Swiss by birth , but he was a man every Englishman would have liked to have called an Englishman ... He was a man of great feelings , generous — one of Nature 's gentlemen . " A telegram was sent on behalf of the Australian people to Emile Mertz , condoling him on his " great loss , but congratulating you on your son 's imperishable fame . " 
