A journey first taken 100 years ago in a Fairey MkIII seaplane inspired Michael Smith to do the same – in his modern twin-engine amphibian – and circumnavigate Australia
Words by Michael Smith
25 October 2024
This year, 2024, marks the 100th anniversary since the first flight around Australia. This story begins and finishes at RAAF Point Cook, on the shore of Melbourne’s Port Philip, with a centenary and 8,500nm in between.
The early 20th century was a time of pioneering aviation achievements: the first flight from England to Australia in 1919, across the Atlantic (1919) and around the world (1924). However, it took five years, after the 28-day England to Australia flight, until 1924 to fly around Australia in 44 days – a testament to just how difficult a journey it was.
Long stretches of Australia were more remote than, say, India through to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). A flight around Australia would not only ‘prove it could be done’ but would also be a survey flight to investigate areas for airfield construction, for both civil aviation and defence to the north. It was the early days of air travel and public confidence was buoyed by these intrepid flights.
The adventure captured the attention of the nation and was spread across front pages of newspapers and followed by families huddled around the wireless in their sitting rooms. Officers Goble and McIntyre (G&M) of the RAAF had been tasked to undertake the mission, following the shoreline all the way. They chose to take a Fairey MkIII Seaplane as there simply weren’t enough runways around the coast to take a conventional land aeroplane.
This brought all sorts of complications. Fuel drums were delivered to nearly 50 rivers, lakes and beaches around the country over several months. G&M landed on the water and used 26 of them.
In reading about the original 44-day flight, it became clear what an incredible achievement it was at the time. There were many delays and the planned month became six weeks. I decided I would follow their route and dates as closely as possible, making some changes due to the passage of time, modern practicalities and even for personal satisfaction.
I would embark again in Southern Sun, a twin-engine amphibian, with this plan:
Point Cook base was both a land and water-based airfield, with a large boat ramp and jetty for seaplane operations. Officers Goble and McIntyre set off from the shore of Point Cook a day later than planned on 6 April, due to rough seas. They made great progress on the first day, making it to Eden for refuelling then onto Rose Bay on Sydney Harbour for their first night’s stop.
I departed Saturday 6 of April 2024 late morning after a nice send-off from the RAAF and a small gathering of family and friends, with plenty of time and daylight to get through to Rose Bay. Our first stop after following the rugged coast all the way around Wilsons Prom was for a water landing on Corner Inlet, where G&M had put down to repair a leaking fuel tank.
After a ‘splash ’n’ dash’ (as opposed to a ‘touch ’n’ go’) I looked east along the coast to see quite a bit of low cloud and scud rain rolling through. We made a diversion to Yarram Airfield to sit out the weather.
The visibility was not good for flying, yet I could do something not possible 100 years earlier… I opened my iPad and studied the radar display of weather moving through. This has been one of the greatest safety advances of all, and would be used many times throughout the trip.
After a couple of hours it looked like the weather had passed, so departed again tracking east along the 90-mile beach, but only 30 minutes later it became clear that there was still more low cloud ahead, so I diverted to Bairnsdale for the night and had to accept that on day one I was already behind! Disappointed, but safety first.
The next morning a blue enough sky welcomed me back to the airfield and was able to continue on. Passing Eden for a splash ’n’ dash (SnD) where they refuelled, onto Rose Bay for a never-gets-old flight over Sydney Harbour – the Bridge, the Opera House and a SnD at Rose Bay. It was still early enough that I could continue on to the Myall River and be back on schedule by the end of the day.
Goble and McIntyre had left Rose Bay at lunchtime, having waited the morning for rain to clear. However, once heading north along the coast they encountered more weather and could not get more than 100ft above the water without entering cloud. After a couple of hours flying north of Newcastle they relented and headed into Port Stevens looking for shelter and put down on the Myall River and ended up staying the night.
I had wanted to do the same but was unable to as today the river has a four knot speed limit. When a seaplane lands on the water it must follow the rules of boating, any speed limits must be obeyed, and landing and taking off at 45-50kt meant it wasn’t possible.
However, close by was the Myall Lakes, which flowed into the river, without a speed limit. I alighted here for the night, tied up to the shore and slept in the aeroplane. It was a splendid evening, and finally reset my mind from manic departure mode into adventure mode. Day two and I was now in the groove – this was one of my favourite nights of the whole trip.
Things progressed well up the coast, stops in Southport and Gladstone with clear weather and no delays. The arrival into Townsville needs special mention. A couple of weeks before starting the trip I was contacted by 6th Squadron to confirm that the RAAF would also commemorate the centenary with a circumnavigation by a pair of EA18 Growler aircraft, which it would do over seven days, and that they would time their departure to rendezvous with me in the air over Townsville, then park together overnight at the air base.
Well, that turned out to be one of the most exciting moments and fun days of my life, with me flying along the Townsville foreshore at max speed of 135kt, while they flew past either side of me as slowly as they could. Not something many private pilots will ever get to experience!
After Townsville continued up the coast, with a three-night stop in Cooktown because G&M had stopped there longer to repair their compass, which was leaking fluid. It was such a primary instrument for them they could not continue without it. Today, while every aircraft has a compass, it is effectively a backup instrument as our GPS and digital mapping screen with compass heading is the main source of information. The three-night stay was just as well, as for both days there it rained relentlessly and I couldn’t have flown anyway.
I was looking forward to Cape York, the most northern point of Australia, where G&M spent seven days on Thursday Island due weather and maintenance. After a splash on the protected water to the northwest of the island, I flew into Horn Island, which has full airport facilities and even commercial flights from the south. I was keen to see some of the Torres Strait islands from the air, and then visit by boat with the spare days ahead.
My wife flew in with Qantas, and we spent a few days exploring Horn and Prince of Wales Islands, Thursday Island on Thursday, Friday Island on Friday. From beautiful beaches to a fort, a historic cemetery to a pearl farm, a local art gallery to discovering a scrumptious crayfish toasty (who knew?) for lunch. It was a splendid if short taste of the area.
Rather than wait there the whole seven days, on the fourth day I ventured south along the coast to follow the whole shoreline of the Gulf of Carpentaria over a few days, and incredibly desolate yet striking coastline with very few buildings or settlements seen over a few days and 1,000 miles of coast, before arriving into the large city of Darwin. After a few nights in Darwin, the next two days were the most anticipated of the whole trip – seeing the Kimberley for the first time.
The further from Darwin the full allure of the Kimberley was revealed, all of the awe-inspiring beauty that has made it one of the world’s most desirable bucket list destinations laid out before me. The Horizontal Falls, my single most anticipated destination did not disappoint. I was fortunate that at the time of my arrival I was the only aircraft in the area so had complete access to fly over and around the falls to explore. Gobsmacking indeed…
Arriving into Broome on a complete high, I was greeted warmly by the ground crew and air traffic controllers, and the Horizontal Falls air tour operators even put Southern Sun up in their hangar for my stay. I had two nights there, which let me catch up with some other seaplane pilots, led by David Geers, on a clockwise flight around Australia. Also, a visit to one of my favourite places in Australia – the Sun Pictures outdoor cinema – the oldest outdoor cinema in Australia… such a great experience.
Continuing along the coast, where everything was about to come to a grinding halt.
Goble and McIntryre arrived onto Carnarvon foreshore and found themselves marooned on a sandbank with the tide going out, local yacht club members arrived by launch to offer a drink and some help.
On trying to depart the next day, they were unable to attain full power on the engine, the engineer tried to remedy the problem but was unable to do so. This was the beginning of a 10-day delay in Carnarvon.
Luckily there was a spare Rolls-Royce engine in Perth just in case it was needed, so it was dispatched. Today it is a 10-hour drive from Perth on a sealed highway, but back then it took seven days, starting with a train, then a lorry on a difficult track. Once the engine arrived, it was exchanged and tested successfully in only one day, all the more amazing as there was no crane in town and they were working in the shallow water on the beach where the aeroplane was resting.
On 11 May 1924, day 36, Goble and McIntrye restarted their journey southbound, as did Southern Sun in 2024, with a brief splash in Geraldton then onto Perth, where they alighted on the Swan River at 4.15pm for an overnight stop. I was excited to land on the Swan River, at Elizabeth Quay, parallel to Langley Park just south of the Central Business District, a spectacular location. I was determined to land 100 years later to the minute, and with the help of ATC and a few minutes of orbits overhead I successfully splashed down right on 4.15pm – Huzzah!
The next few days saw stops along a coastline visually the equal of the Kimberley, the Margaret River region, Albany, Esperance and onto Israelite Bay, for one of the more memorable nights of the journey. When Goble and McIntyre stopped on the semi-protected waters of Israelite Bay, in the Great Australian Bight, at the Telegraph Station.
Today, that building is abandoned, the roof and other features long removed by the passage of time and weather. But striking ruins remain, with no one in sight. I was able to land on a sandy strip beside a dried lake and spend the night, the only person here, sleeping in the aeroplane. A long walk around the area, to the beach and through the ruins finishing with clear skies and carpet of stars – both surreal yet splendid.
The longest flight of the trip was next, across the Bight to Ceduna. There was simply nowhere suitable for water landings across this famously rugged coastline. I thought a lot about the several people who have kayaked around Australia… this would be one tough stretch to conquer. One of the most spectacular of flying days, the cliffs are mostly 200ft to 300ft high and flying over the water at 500ft, provided an incredible view back at the cliffs – I could at times see the Nullarbor Highway and people camping by the cliff edge.
What I could see, that no one on top could, was how much of the cliffs had fallen into the sea over the millennia, huge boulders the size of buildings having given way to the persistence of gravity. I found myself pondering the images we see of huge chunks of Antarctic ice falling into the sea each season as the season turns, and wondered whether my always-on video camera might chance upon the rock version of it along these couple of days… alas, all remained intact…. for now.
One fun side diversion was to top up for fuel at the Nullarbor Roadhouse, a classic outback diner and fuel station – by landing behind the building then taxing around onto the road, to pull up at the petrol bowser between the cars, caravan and trucks. It’s one of the great things about flying in rural Australia, and certainly gave the tourists driving through something fun and unusual to see.
With only two days to go, a mixed sense of relief of nearly being home, sadness that it’s nearly over, yet trepidation that anything could still go wrong kept me alert.
Next stop, after Ceduna and Port Lincoln, should have been Beachport, but on this, day 43 of the trip, it was too rough to alight on the water. This was a shame as quite a crowd of locals were there to meet Southern Sun, so I conducted a few orbits over the town and foreshore and continued on to the closest local airport at Millicent. There, like so many of the airfields along the way, I was greeted by locals who had been following the flight.
After a pretty tough day of flying, with a lot of weather to fly around along the coast, I returned to RAAF Point Cook. I was greeted with splendid welcome home celebrations, which I was chuffed to find included the RAAF Brass Band. They had also played at the return of Goble & McIntyre’s original flight 100 years ago, with fire trucks forming an arch with their water cannons for me to taxi through on arrival.
Reflecting on the original flight, while looking at what has changed in 100 years. Without doubt, aeroplanes are more reliable today. Back then an engineer was needed to constantly attend to the engine, whereas modern engines are very reliable. They navigated with a compass, a speedometer and a watch. Today GPS tells us exactly where we are, reducing both workload and stress levels!
They often spent hours fuelling the aeroplane, transferring small tins wading through the water to the aeroplane to make up the 400 litres needed. Today there are hundreds or airports around the country with fuel bowsers making it as easy as filling a car. They didn’t have a radio and could go days without being in touch with the outside world, with people worried for their safety. Whereas today there’s a reliable aviation radio, satellite tracking and internet, with mobile phones working in about 80% of the coast.
But what I did find was remarkably the same, was the weather – they were delayed in certain areas, mainly the East Coast, Cape York and the Gulf of Carpentaria, where at the same time of the year I also faced the same problematic weather. It seems 100 years later in autumn, low cloud and heavy rain still is a challenge for small aeroplanes. I went four weeks straight without a drop of rain after the Gulf, until crossing the border from SA into Victoria on the last day… of course I did – Welcome Home!
Another thing that thankfully hasn’t changed is the generosity of strangers and how communities come together to help each other. In 1924 they always found the locals would come and help them refuel, beach the aircraft or help lift it off when the tide went out further than expected, be fed and given a bed when needed. Similarly, I had people always willing to give me a lift, offer a bed or put on a BBQ dinner for locals interested in the flight and to chat and learn more. Especially in the regions, hospitality and helpfulness is alive and well.
Finally, as I flew past the many towns of the east coast of Australia, I reflected on the changes to infrastructure and cities along the way, what we would call the progress of civilisation. But once I passed Cooktown to the north, signs of humankind became a rare sight, and for the next month, most of the time I did not see buildings let alone cities. The vastness of the uninhabited Australia prevailed; it really sunk in that for the vast majority of this country, 100 years is a blip in time, for nothing much has changed over 10,000 years.
It’s been a wonderful experience which I look forward to sharing more… but also, getting back to work… until the next big idea comes along!
