The Southern Cross with excited onlookers after landing at Oura. Photo: Museum of the Riverina collection.
It has been 90 years since famous Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith vanished over the Andaman Sea.
This week, the team from the Museum of the Riverina take us back a year earlier to 1933 with a spectacular pic of the time when Kingsford-Smith (AKA Smithy) was invited to Wagga by Mr Robert Joseph Dunn.
Riverina newspapers breathlessly reported that he would land on Sunday 5 November 1933.
“Mr R J Dunn’s paddock on the Oura road, near Wagga, will be the scene of the arrival at 11 o’clock tomorrow morning of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in his world-renowned monoplane, the Southern Cross,” announced The Daily Advertiser.
“The Percival-Gull plane which he recently flew from England will also arrive piloted by Mr O B Hall, and a DH-50 biplane, Southern Cross Midget, piloted by Mr J T Pethybridge, will accompany the party.”
The decorated World War I veteran airman became an international sensation in 1928 when he and co-pilot Charles Ulm completed the first transpacific flight from California to Brisbane via Hawaii and Fiji.
In his autobiography, My Flying Life, Smithy explained why he and Ulm had decided to tackle such a perilous task after several years of stunt-flying in the US.
“We began to talk of some big feat which would bring us what we wanted, fame, money, status,” he wrote.
“We wanted also to do something which would not only advance aviation and confound the sceptics, but something that would bring fame to our country.”
Later that year, Smithy and Ulm also completed the first non-stop flight across Australia from Melbourne to Perth and Australia to New Zealand.
A snapshot taken of Kingsford Smith during his Wagga visit in 1933. Photo: Museum of the Riverina collection.
When the Southern Cross came to Wagga in 1933, it was on the way to Melbourne with what the Sunday Mail called “the largest barn-storming touring party known to Australia”.
“At the controls of ‘The Old Bus’, the Southern Cross, ‘Smithy’ left Mascot this morning,” they reported on 4 November 1933.
“They will stop at Goulburn today, Wagga tomorrow and then tour the whole of Victoria.”
Hundreds of Wagga residents turned out to see the three planes and the iconic aviator himself during his visit, and a lucky number went up in the Southern Cross as passenger flights were made throughout the day.
“Yesterday was an epoch making day in the history of Wagga, in so far as aeronautics are concerned,” reported The Daily Advertiser on Monday 6 November.
“Residents had the opportunity of meeting, and flying with, the world’s greatest pilot, (Sir Charles Kingsford Smith) in the equally world-famous giant monoplane, the Southern Cross.”
The trio of planes was scheduled to arrive from Goulburn at 11 am and were spotted on the horizon minutes before the appointed time.
“In his own inimitable style ‘Smithy’ brought ‘The Old Bus’ down to a perfect three-point landing and taxied up to the fence which was keeping the crowd back,” the Advertiser reported.
“He brought the plane to a standstill punctually at 11 o’clock, and this was the sign for a concerted rush to the machine, which was surrounded by the eager throng.”
When asked for a feature interview about his adventures, Smithy replied, “I’m not news”.
The planes left Wagga on Tuesday morning bound for Victoria, to commence an extensive tour of that state.
All proceeds from the visit went to aid the Wagga District Ambulance.
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