In the second instalment of the 100th anniversary of the first commercial flight in the southern hemisphere, Sir Norman Brearley looks east to expand….
In 1928, with improved frequency and reliability of their North West coastal services between Perth and Derby and records being set for passengers, freight and mail, West
Australian Airways (WA Airways) looked east.
Founder Sir Norman Brearley, always the visionary, wanted to connect Perth with Adelaide in a giant 2963km leap across the hostile Nullarbor Plain.
According to noted aviation historian Geoffrey Goodall, to win an airmail contract to make the route financially viable WA Airways proposed four three-engine 14-passenger de
Havilland DH.66 Hercules to operate two weekly two-day services in each direction.
Refuelling was to be done at Kalgoorlie, Forrest and Ceduna, with a scheduled overnight stop at Forrest where passengers would be accommodated in a guest house on
the airfield.
WA Airways won the airmail subsidy ahead of 20 bids and a new share issue secured the £100,000 outlay required to purchase the DH.66s and cover the other costs associated with establishing Australia’s first transcontinental air route.
The inaugural transcontinental service departed Perth on May 26, 1929, when a large crowd watched the DH.66 firstly turn west towards Rottnest to gain height before
heading east over the Darling Range towards Kalgoorlie.
The east-bound service was linked to the UK mail ship arriving in Fremantle and often the service was delayed which meant that the flight would arrive at Forrest at night.
Brearley had 18 Sperry rotating beacons installed on 17m towers along the route where most of the night flying was occurring and he also set up floodlighting of the Forrest landing area.
“The DH.66s proved reliable and gave dependable if slow, service mainly on the east-west route and also when required were utilised on WA Airways’ North West coastal service from Perth to Derby,” Mr Goodall said.
“The sliding cabin windows could be opened, giving passengers the convenience of throwing out used sick bags in flight — and passengers were always sick.”
The DH.66 was also noisy and passengers had to take heavy clothes to rug up against the
cold.
Headwinds were a problem for the service and on October 29, 1929, when inbound to Forrest from Adelaide in the dark, the plane that Brearley and Eric Chater were
flying ran out of fuel.
Brearley wrote in his autobiography: “We were about eight miles from Forrest when all
three engines stopped. Chater landed close to the railway line with the aid of the plane’s landing lights.
Sir Norman Brearley. Colourised by Benoit Vienne
In about an hour a small rail trolley came out from Forrest, bringing an engineer to investigate the trouble and also hot drinks for the passengers.
“Our hostel staff had learnt of the plane’s progress from messages received from railway
camps along our route and had estimated where we would have been. Then started a most unusual shuttle to and from Forrest as the little rail trolley was only able to carry a few people, each trip.
“Further trips were made with bags of mail and the passengers’ luggage. The following morning the schedule was maintained using the spare Hercules stationed at Forrest, while Chater brought the stranded plane into Forrest after taking on sufficient petrol.”
The range problem was quickly solved by the installation of an additional fuel tank, designed and built by WA Airways staff at Maylands.
Tony McGrath’s ‘In Western Skies’, gives more details of the journey and the stop at Forrest.
Passengers were offered a three-course meal with a soup starter, followed by a choice of
three main courses — beef, mutton or lamb. The meal was rounded off with three sweet choices — apple tart and cream, crumb custard or Salt Lake jelly and dessert fruit.
Passengers were given route maps and encouraged to follow the progress. The map titled On Airways Magic Carpet said: “Your flight will interest you more if you follow your route on the map and work out your speed and position.”
The service was going well but trouble was ahead.
Viastra II airliner. Colourised by Benoit Vienne
In 1930 Vickers in the UK wrote to Brearley to promote its new Viastra II airliner and he was enthusiastic because it appeared a major step forward. It was a twin-engine monoplane of all-metal construction compared to the DH.66’s metal fuselage frame with wood and fabric covering and wooden wings. The Viastra would carry up to 12 passengers at 225km/h in much-improved comfort.
The inaugural service departed from Maylands on March 2, 1931, for Adelaide, under Brearley’s command and carrying invited press who reported their favourable impressions: “Eleven hours flying time to Adelaide, four hours less than the average DH.66 crossing, the comfortable seating, a toilet in the cabin and being able to smoke in flight.”
But the glowing reports soon ended as the Viastra’s Achilles heel — engine problems — soon revealed itself. In Australia’s unforgiving heat it was unable to maintain altitude on one engine.
It suffered 16 forced landings in the same number of months with the final one just after take-off from Maylands into a market garden that is now the site of Perth Airport. The Civil Aviation Branch grounded the type.
The de Havilland DH.84 Dragon replaced the Viastras and they were used on both the North West and transcontinental routes.
The first international airmail from the UK being unloaded at Maylands on December 21, 1934, just in time for Christmas. Pilot George McCausland is on the left. Credit: Geoffrey Goodall. Colourised by Benoit Vienne
But major change was in the wind. In 1935 the Federal government reviewed the existing airmail contracts ahead of the launch of the first Australia-UK air service.
The Perth-Wyndham route would be extended from Wyndham to Daly Waters where mail would be transferred to a new Brisbane-Darwin-Singapore route. To the shock of the aviation industry, the contract went to Horrie Miller’s MacRobertson-Miller Aviation Co Ltd (MMA) of Adelaide backed by Sir Macpherson Robertson, of the Melbourne chocolate manufacturing family.
Without the North West service, the WA Airways directors knew that the east-west route, with reduced loadings because of the Depression, could not sustain the airline.
Assets were sold and MMA’s chief Horrie Miller lured WA Airways ace pilot Captain James
“Jimmy” Woods to join his new venture to assist pilots, George McCausland and Bert Hussey.
Pilot Jimmy Woods and Horrie Miller pose with a MacRobertson Miller Airlines Lockheed Vega at Maylands in 1934. Colourised by Benoit Vienne
Noted Western Australian identity Don McCausland recalls his father had many “adventures” flying with MMA.
“At Ord River Station, dad was invited to have a cup of tea and didn’t tie the plane down and it was caught in a willy willy and was blown into a stockyard fence,” Mr McCausland said. That stop became a several-day affair.
But for WA Airways the end came in 1936, selling out to a new consortium headed by Holyman Airways to form a national airline to be called Australian National Airlines (ANA).
One of the main reasons to sell out according to Brearley was that in 1935 the government had lifted its ban on the importation of US aircraft and the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 were a great deal more expensive and capable than the UK-built aircraft of the day.
“So, with a sigh of relief I said, ‘do I need to stay in the airline business?’ I thought I would leave the table with my winnings,” Brearley said in an interview with Transit, the Qantas cabin crew magazine.
Indeed, the DC-2 and later DC-3 revolutionised air travel and were the first aircraft that could make money without government mail subsidies.
In December 1936, ANA put the DC-2 on the Adelaide-Perth route and it was a daylight flight taking just eight hours.
The press was lyrical, lauding the 14 armchairs, the air vents, the reading lamps, luxurious fittings, lack of vibrations from the two engines and the soundproofing.
Modern aviation had finally arrived in Western Australia built on the extraordinary pioneering groundwork of Sir Norman Brearley.
