Historical Sites and Heritage Locations

The Southern Cloud Memorial is dedicated to the airliner Southern Cloud, which was one of Australia’s greatest air mysteries. On March 21, 1931, the three-engine aeroplane disappeared without a trace on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne. It was Australia’s first big civil airline disaster.

The mystery was solved 27 years later during the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme construction. On October 26, 1958, Tom Sonter, a carpenter left his camp 15 miles from Happy Jacks and came upon rusted metal. The riddle of the Southern Cloud had been solved. The Southern Cloud lay on the South West side of the densely timbered mountain ridge of the now Kosciuszko National Park.

The Memorial is made of concrete wings 40 feet across that soar from the blunt apex of a triangle. A grill encloses the face of the memorial and the recovered engine parts of the Southern Cloud and other historic relics. Recorded information is available, telling the story of the Southern Cloud. It was erected by the Cooma Lions Club.