Bjerko Peninsula

Bjerko Peninsula (coord|67|50|S|69|30|E|) is a broad ice-covered peninsula of Antarctica, forming the west shore of MacKenzie Bay. Norwegian whalers explored this area in January and February 1931, naming the cape at the end of this peninsula for gunner Reidar Bjerko of the whale catcher Bouvet II, from whose deck the coast was sketched on January 19. Since Sir Douglas Mawson probably saw this cape from a great distance as early as 1929, the Australian name of Cape Darnley has been retained for the cape, while the Norwegian name has been applied to the peninsula.

Cape Darnley (coord|67|43|S|69|30|E|) is the ice-covered cape forming the north extremity of Bjerko Peninsula. On December 26, 1929, Sir Douglas Mawson, from the masthead of the Discovery while at coord|66|57|S|71|57|E|, saw land miraged up on the southwest horizon. On February 10, 1931 he returned in the Discovery and was able to approach close enough to see the headland, naming it for E.R. Darnley, Chairman of the Discovery Committee of the Colonial Office, London, 1923 to 1933.