AIR MAIL

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 143, 14 December 1934, Page 9

AIR MAIL

AUSTRALIAN SEEVICE

A RED LETTER DAY

(From VThe Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, December 6.

Tremendous interest centres in ilia inauguration on Monday next of theregular weekly air-mail service.between Australia and England, vj;i Darwin and Singapore. As the first mail is timed to reach London in time for delivery on Christmas Eve. there has been :i great rush oi! letters from all over Australia and the postal authorities say that, if necessary, two aeroplanes will be dispatched. During the past two or three years there have been several experimental mails between London and Australia, but the new service will be the culmination of 15 years of effort —effort that dates back from the day when Ross Smith landed his big Yickers Vimy machine in triumph at Darwin, carrying only a few private letters. The new air route is the longest in the world, and will extend over 10 separate countries and ranges across half the globe. The flying distance from the terminus at Brisbane to London is 12,793 miles. The route to be followed by the service fpllbws closely that of the famous Centenary Air. Kace, and th.ero is still gome dissatisfaction at the time allowed by the schedules. London will still be 13 days from Sydney, and it has been shown that it would be possible to reduce this considerably. Neither the British nor the Australian Governments are willing to cut down the time immediately, but it is generally agrecl that there will be some speeding 'up after the service has be.en fully established. • The mail will carry any kind of postal article except a parcel, and tho flat rate for letters will be Is 6d, whilrt postcards will be carried for lOd. Tlio new air mail is not confined to Ihn Australia-England route, for- it will link up with all the air .srrvicrs in Europe, Asia, and Africa, thu.-s spanning with wings the whole of Iln> eastern hemisphere. The great junction will be Cairo. .

• In Australia itself the new wrvta actually links .up the wholo contnsoui. with an internal .notvvorlt, the <:uut/n----ent being divided into an caste.™ n-iid a western division. The western division includes the Perth-Daly Watera air mail leaving Perth -every Slondny at;' noon and arriving at Daly Watqrrs oa Wednesday afternoon, where it meets the outgoing Einpiro air mail Meanwhile the incoming Empire a&r mail will have arrived, and the bags handed over .to the waiting aeroplane. The eastern division includes the BrisbaneDarwin route, Sydney and Melbourne being linked up with Cojotamundra. [With the completion of th/e Adelaide- ] Burke section next year, Ijio whole of Australia will thus be linked with tho Empire trunk mail line. Darwin is now well on the way to becoming Australia's great northern airport. Tha aerodrome there has been extended, and a weather bureau- is being established. Before long Darwin will provide the first glimpse of Australia tor many overseas travellers who would otherwise have gained their first impressions front the wharves at liemantle.