Around Australia Flights – 100 Years

The first flight began on 6 April 1924, when Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre set off from the RAAF base at Point Cook, Victoria, in a single-engine, open-cockpit, Fairey IIID seaplane, A10-3. The duo travelled anti-clockwise, via Sydney, Southport, Townsville, Thursday Island, across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Darwin, Broome, Carnarvon, Perth, Albany, and Port Lincoln and back to Victoria. They battled poor weather and constant engine trouble and in Carnarvon, Western Australia, the plane’s engine had to be replaced.  On 19 May, after 44 days and 13,600 kilometres, they alighted at St Kilda beach, Victoria, to an enthusiastic welcome from a 10,000-strong crowd gathered on the Esplanade.

The stamp design is based on a photograph by Stan Copplestone, 1930, Fairey III D Seaplane A10-3, Hilda Copplestone Collection, Library & Archives NT, PH0457/0018.

The second round-Australia flight, this time in a landplane, was carried out three months later by the Civil Aviation Branch (CAB) of the Department of Defence to inspect air routes and to test the long-distance efficiency of the De Havilland D.H.50 aircraft. The crew of the aircraft, registered G-AUAB, comprised expedition leader and Controller of Civil Aviation, Lt Col HC Brinsmead; pilot Captain EJ Jones, the CAB’s Superintendent of Flying Operations and Personnel; and mechanic RH Buchanan, an assistant Superintendent of Engineering. After departing Point Cook on 7 August, the trip was undertaken in three stages: Melbourne to Darwin via Bourke, Longreach and Cloncurry; Darwin to Perth; and Perth back to Point Cook, where they alighted on 29 August after flying 12,324 kilometres.

The stamp design is based on a photograph of the De Havilland D.H.50A from the Stephen Barnham collection.