FEDERAL AIR SERVICES

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1927, Page 3

FEDERAL AIR SERVICES

ROUTES TO ENCIRCLE CONTINENT SYDNEY, Sept. 8.

Actuated by the urgent necessity of bringing Australian civil aviation into line with developments in Europe and America, the Federal Government has decided to increase the Federal grant to civil air scrvicee by £200,000 a year to £315,000. The plans for new services will bring the most distant portions of tiie Commonwealth within four days’ journey of one or other of the capital cities, and will virtually mean the encirclement of the Continent by the air services.

In making the announcement of the Cabinet’s decision, the Prime Minister (Mr S. M. Bruce) said that considerable additional services would be commenced immediately. One of the first would be the opening of an airway

across the Continent from Adelaide to Perth. Another of the new services in contemplation was to operate from Cammooweal, on the eastern edge of the Northern Territory, to the railhead of the line from Darwin—a com. paratively short aerial link of 650 miles. This woui’d ensure that every! week a mail would leave Brisbane for Darwin and arrive there three days later, in comparison with the present mail once a month, reaching Darwin! eight days after dispatch from Brisbane. In order to link up this ser-l vice with the one now connecting the | three railheads of the lines running west from Brisbane, Rockhampton, and Townsville, it was necessary to organise j an aerial route from Brisbane to Charleville. This section of 450 miles would reduce the time between Cloucurry and Brisbane from three and i half days by rail to 27 hours bv air, and in addition would have a marked effect oil the efficiency and value of the service now operating in Central Queensland. Another of the new services would be between Brisbane and Sydney, reducing the time of journey from 27 hours by train to seven hours , by air. It was also possible that a service would be organised between I Melbourne and Hobart. j The money to be made available is considered sufficient for subsidy pur- j poses, for the provision of aerodromes j along the various routes and their j maintenance, for the additonal cost of administration and supervision, and for all other activities respecting the development of civil’ aviation, other than those of airships, it will permit also of a measure of increased pilot training, and of considerable improve-! meat to tlie terminal aerodromes at the capital cities. “My attendance at the Imperial Conference,” declared Air Bruce, "lias led me to be assured that aircraft have introduced a significant factor into the economic and social relationship of mankind, and the time is not too soon for Australia to take much greater advantage of its possibilities than lias been done in the past. Great sums of money are now being expended by the various Governments in Europe and America to hasten this development. Australia’s scattered population, long distances, and perfect flight conditions make it desirable that we should exploit the new method of transportation to the full. In doing so, we shall not merely reap social and commercial advantages already demonstrated by our past successes in this direction, but also contribute something substantial in men, machines, and aerodromes, to the country’s defence,