In late March 1943 fifty-one year old baker Rigas Carsas and thirty-six year old engineer Roy Clarke, both from the nearby sugar milling town of South Johnstone, were fishing at night near the mouth of Liverpool Creek in North Queensland when they noticed a bright flash in the sky.[1] Continue reading “Unsolved”
Blast from the past
In 1995 the Commonwealth provided National Estate funding for a pilot study of Victoria’s aeronautical and astronautical heritage, the first state-level thematic study of its kind. This investigation identified more than a hundred significant sites, three of which related to astronautics. The latter included the Graytown Proof & Experimental Establishment near Puckapunyal; the Ravenhall Static Test Facility in Melbourne’s Deer Park; and the rocket static test site within the former Explosives Factory at Maribyrnong, these last two having been operated by the same agency. Continue reading “Blast from the past”
Homefront Caldwell
Military aircraft crashes were not uncommon in wartime Queensland, local Police often the first responders.
By 1944 Queensland coastal communities had grown accustomed to the daily sight and sound of military aircraft transiting to and from forward bases in Papua New Guinea, and beyond. Monitoring the northbound progress of one such formation on the morning of Monday, 28th August 1944 was Caldwell resident Frank Jenkins who stared, fixedly, as something – which he took to be a flare – dropped from one of the planes…’at the same time it was losing height…and [he] saw that it came down very low North of Caldwell over the sea.’ [1]
Soon afterwards another single-engine plane flew very low over the tiny seaside community and dropped a message requesting assistance for their colleague who had force-landed in the sea about three miles north.
Military aircraft crashes were not uncommon then, another RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) aircraft having plunged into the sea near Townsville a few weeks earlier. [2]
On duty at the local Police Station that morning was thirty-nine year old Sergeant Francis West (No.2753) who, with his colleague Constable D Crowley, immediately set out in a motor launch owned by local man George Watkins.
On arrival there it was seen that the Aeroplane which was a Kittyhawk (R.A.A.F.) machine No.A.29-190 had landed on a mud flat about 200 yards from the beach, there does not appear to have been any extensive damage done to the plane, the principal damage being bent propeller blades.
The Pilot of the Aeroplane Warrant Officer, John James Guy No.431581 of Ferry Flight R.A.A.F. Bankstown was at the Plane ad he was not injured. There was no other person in the plane at the time.
Twenty-two-year-old Guy explained that he had been flying from Mackay to Port Moresby (via Cairns) when obliged to force land owing to engine trouble. [3] What Frank Jenkins had taken to be a falling flare was in fact an external fuel tank, these ‘belly’ tanks always being jettisoned before emergency landings (so as to minimize the risks of fire and explosion). His Kittyhawk aircraft was then still new, having only been delivered to Australia (from the North American factory) a few weeks earlier.
Guy was delivered back to Caldwell by mid-afternoon, in time to board the 4pm south-bound train for Townsville.
The matter of guarding the plane was taken in hand by the local Volunteer Defence Corps under Corporal G E Moller, and RAAF Headquarters in Townsville were duly notified. By the following day Sergeant Cunneen had also completed a type-written incident report for the Police Inspector in Cairns. [4]
Unfortunately however, the aircraft was submerged four times by tidal waters before a salvage crew eventually arrived from No. 6 Crash Recovery Depot at Breddan, 300 kilometres away. Not surprisingly the month-old Kittyhawk was condemned.
[1] Sergeant Francis West (Report 372-44), 29th August 1944, Cardwell District – 28 Aug 1944 – RAAF Kitty Hawk aeroplane – RAAF Warrant Officer GUY, John James 431581 (Queensland State Archives, ID 2177768)
[2] https://www.ozatwar.com/9aug45.htm
[3] National Archives of Australia, NAA: A9301, 413581.
[4] Ten months earlier Cunneen had attended another fatal plane crash (B-25 41-13091) west of Caldwell, involving eleven fatalities.
No Survivor
Townsville’s first aerodrome
Nothing remains in suburban Annandale to suggest that this quite suburb on the southern banks of the Ross River was once the City of Townsville ‘s only public aerodrome. Continue reading “Townsville’s first aerodrome”
A camoufleur’s art
For more than a century official war artists have helped shape our understanding of Australian military history. Often selected on the basis of their pre-war reputations, the works produced by official war artists such as Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale, Arthur Streeton and Albert Tucker have become staple offerings for a nation now locked into a permanent cycle of military commemoration.
Far eclipsing the output of these official war artists however is the great body of work produced by Australia’s unofficial war artists. Despite its greater authenticity (much official war art having been produced by non-participants, after the event), this vast output remains largely undocumented, unstudied, and unappreciated. Continue reading “A camoufleur’s art”
‘never…except by aeroplane’
Like other eminent organisations, Qantas too has its own foundation narrative – concerning two recently demobbed Australian airmen (Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness) who, in an epic 2,180 km overland journey in a Model T Ford, successfully surveyed the continent’s northern aerial route from Longreach (Qld.) to the Katherine River (N.T. ) railhead in preparation for the first England to Australia Air Race arrivals. Continue reading “‘never…except by aeroplane’”
