Cape Denison is situated in Commonwealth Bay in the Australian Antarctic Territory. It is an Historic site as it is where the 1911 Australian Antarctic Expedition of Sir Douglas Mawson established its base.

Mawson's Huts still exist and are currently being conserved by the AAP Mawson's Huts Foundation. The area is notoriously windy with the omnipresent Antarctic cabatic winds bestoweing on the place its name of "Home of the Blizzard".

Plans were made for a major 1999-2000 conservation expedition to Cape Denison following an earlier trip made in 1998-99 but logistic problems with AAT shipping meant that the expedition was postponed until the 2000-2001 season when a Team led by Rob Easther of the Australian Antarctic Division departed Hobart on the Expedition vessel "Sir Hubert Wilkins".

Expedition leader Rob Easther in his Hobart AAT office in 2000 prior to departure for Cape Denison.

At left we can see the Expedition vessel "Sir Hubert Wilkins" hitting a swell on its way south from Hobart

The "Sir Hubert Wilkins" arrived at Cape Denison on Christmas Day 2000 as shown at left.

  It remained in the general area until 5th January, 2001 when it uplifted the expedition team and returned them to Hobart on the 16th January, 2001.

Note: Australia Post had issued a special set of three AAT stamps back in 1999 for this expedition and also a pictorial Mawson's Huts envelope. These are used above and the envelope has been postmarked with the special pictorial Cape Denison, AAT postmark used only for the one day on January 1st, 2001.

The cover is signed by the Expedition Leader Rob Easther and also bears a Mawson's Huts Building stone cinderella label signifying that A$10 from the price of this envelope has gone to the rebuilding fund.

Note: this cover is identical to the previous one except that it bears a pair of the other two stamps from the Mawson's Huts stamp set.

Note: This cover with the ships cachet of "Sir Hubert Wilkins" was posted at Cape Denison and received the pictorial Cape Denison postmark.

Note: This envelope has two ships cachets from the "Sir Hubert Wilkins" applied including a special one for this particular voyage. It also has a Mawson's Huts Buildingstone cinderella affixed which interestingly has also been postmarked!

Note: This envelope is similar to the previous one except that it does not have a Mawson's huts Buildingstone cinderella affixed.

Note: the above sheet has 10 self-adhesive labels. Each sheet is individually numbered.

More details about the expedition can be found  on the Mawson's Huts Foundation web site which can be found here