FIRST ANTARCTIC MAIL BY PLANE

Grey River Argus, 6 August 1948, Page 5

FIRST ANTARCTIC MAIL BY PLANE

Commander’s Account of Macquarie Visit P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 5. The amphibious Catalina flying boat of the R.A.A.F.. which arrived at Wigram early this morning from Macquarie Island. 800 miles south of New Zealand, will take off on its return flight to Australia at. 8 o’clock tomorrow morning. The commander Squadron Leader R. H. S. Gray, said this evening that the aeroplane would fly uo the east coast of the South Island as far as Cook Strait before setting a course for Sydney. Its destination was the Rathmines flyingboat base, 60 miles north of Sydney. He said that the flight from Cambridge aerodrome, near Hobart to Macquarie Island on Wednesday was more or less an emergency mission as an engineer had to be sent to the Australian Antarctic Research Expedition’s base on the island. The former engineer, Mi’ C. H. Scoble, of Castlemaine, Victoria, had been drowned, when he fell through ice while on a skiing expedition. Norunally the supplies and new personnel for Macquarie Island were taken by sea from Australia. It was Squadron-Leader Gray’s second visit to the island. His first visit was made earlier this year aboard the Antarctic vessel Wyatt Earp, which carried a float plane for reconnaissance work. On Wednesday he landed his Catalina in the open sea on the leeside of the island, away from the prevailing swell. The weather, as is usual off island, was fairly rough. A dinghy kept on the island was used to take off stores which the Catalina had brought, while the aircraft, with one engine running, stood into the wind. Gray spent about an hour ashore on MacQuarie Island. He said that the personnel of the base, numbering about 12 men, mostly scientists had made themselves fairly comfortable in prefabricated huts, which they had themselves erected. The huts were adequately heated, and the case was very well provisioned, principally with tinned goods. However the men sole contact with the . outside world, apart from rare visits by ships, was by radio. Squadron-Leader Gray said he thought that visits to the island by aircraft would not be made the regular practice. His aircraft had flown 1002 miles direct from Hobart to the island, and upwards of 800 miles back to Wigram. Six of the seven men carried by the Catalina, including the Commander, are visiting New Zealand for the first time. Squadron-Leader Gray said his impressions of the country were, “very good.”