This Day in History: 1929-04-12

After a forced landing west of Wyndham, WA, Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, Harold Litchfield and Tom McWilliams were still stranded beside the Glenelg River on 12 April 1929. Ulm recorded the following in his log: “Smithy and Litchfield stayed last night on Darlinghurst Hill. Mac and I could not sleep down here. We are on the last of the gruel now and taking almost pure hot water. Mac is wearing shorts only and is as brown as
a berry. I started yesterday, but am rather scared of severe sunburn.
SAVED! SAVED!
9.50. We are saved! Saved! Holden’s Canberra appears from the south-east, making a long wide turn to the cast, continuing in another from east to south to west. Eventually at 10 a.m. it came low down over the Southern Cross, and circled for well over an hour, dropping four packs of rations. God, its all too wonderful! Food! Smithy and Litchfield rushed down from Darlinghurst Hill with tears in their eyes and whoops of joy. We are all in. But see! Oh see! the old Southern Cross is in one piece and eventually we will fly out. We just tore open two tins of bully beef and ate it like animals. Holden has returned to Wyndham, first dropping a message saying he would return with more food and messages. God bless him! God bless everybody! Litchfield and Mac are great lads. We had previously decided that if rescued Smithy and I would stay and fly the ‘bus out, sending Litchfield and Mac out by the rescue ‘planes. But no! Now they absolutely mutiny and refuse to leave any time without us, so we have agreed to their mutinous request and all will leave together in the good old Southern Cross. How we ate that first food for twelve days – meat, raisins, cafe chocolate – everything in together, really like animals, and unclean ones at that.”
Les Holden flying the DH.61 “Canberra” had left Derby just before 8:00am carrying Hamilton, J.S. Stannage (radio operator), F.R. Mitchell (mechanic), Lyell Dunn and Douglas Davidson. The radio messages sent from the aircraft were as follows: “9.18 am – We have just sighted Mount Trafalgar and Mount Waterloo to the north of St. George’s Basin. Still about 50 miles away. 9.22 am – We are now crossing over Princess Mary Ranges; should be at Prince Regent River shortly. 9.37 am – In five minutes we will cross the Prince Regent River at the point where it runs into St. George’s Basin. We are on our way to Port George IV mission to see if they can give any more definite information. 9.45 am – After visiting Port George IV we will search all the bays and inlets as far as Cape Londonderry. 11.31 am – Found Southern Cross: all O.K., all alive; have dropped food. News later. 11.35 am – Canberra confirms finding Southern Cross crew all alive. 11.37 am – We are climbing higher to get better view so we can more directly pin-point the position of the Southern Cross. 11.38 am – They must be eating now; have not seen them for few minutes. Dropping more food. 11.40 am – Can now see whole crew. All Safe. 11.47 am – Found alive. All well. Position south of Port George IV mission on mud flats. 11.58 am – Can see whole crew now. All safe. 12.03 pm – Have now pin-pointed Southern Cross’s position, which is approximately Glenelg River about 20 miles from George Waters. 12.09 pm – Still flying round Southern Cross, 12.10 pm – Advise Smith, Ulm, Litchfield and McWilliams’s families that the airmen are well and have plenty of water as they have good creek running near them. 12.15 pm – We have now left the Southern Cross and are about to pass over St. George’s Basin, near Patrick Island.” The Canberra arrived back at Wyndham at 3.53 pm, after being in the air for over six hours.
The evening papers in the capital cities reported the news with front-page headlines. The Sun (Sydney) which had sponsored the flight to London devoted the entire front page to the news, with pictures of all four aviators.
After resuming their flight towards Wyndham to join the search, Captain Matheson and Finn in the Golburn Aero Club Gipsy Moth were again forced to land due to engine trouble, in “heavily timbered country” near Duchess, 50 miles southwest of Cloncurry. A piston ring had burned through, and they waited a week for spare parts to arrive. On 19 April, the Defence Department sent a telegram to Golburn Aero Club asking that Matheson not to proceed any further. Newspapers gave differing reasons, either “as his machine would be too slow to operate with the others in the search [for Anderson and Hitchcock]” or “in view of the unsuitability of the Gipsy Moth machine, and the danger of operating west of the telegraph line without wireless equipment”.
Keith Anderson and Bob Hitchcock and the Kookaburra were stranded in the Tanami desert for a second day on 12 April. Two RAAF de Havilland DH.9A aircraft left Point Cook to fly northwest and commence a search. One was flown by FLTLT Charles Eaton and the other by FLGOFF A.G. Gerrard, and each carried a mechanic.
The forced landing by the Southern Cross and its consequences became known as the “Coffee Royal” affair. Sources: Parnell, N. and Boughton, T., Flypast, A Record of Aviation in Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1988; Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld), Mon 15 Apr 1929, Page 9, “LIEUTENANT ULM’S LOG”; Davis, Pedr and Smith, Dick, Kookaburra: The Most Compelling Story in Australia’s Aviation History, Lansdowne Press, Dee Why, NSW, 1980