FROM LONDON TO AUSTRALIA BY AEROPLANE 



337 



us The Administrator of the Northern 

 Territory and the Mayor of Darwin were 

 given barely time to make an official wel- 

 come when the assemblage, brimming 

 with enthusiasm, lifted us shoulder high 

 and conveyed us to the jail! 



This sinister objective, for the mo- 

 ment, gave us qualms, for we fully ex- 

 pected a charge of exceeding the speed 

 limit to be preferred against us. That 

 drastic apprehension resolved itself into 

 being dumped on a tree-stump, historic 

 or otherwise, in the garden, while rau- 

 cous howls of "Speech ! Speech !" came 

 from the hospitable multitude. 



After the exchange of much hot air on 

 both sides, we returned to the Vimy, 

 made all snug, and lashed her down for 

 the night. 



OVERWHELMED WITH TELEGRAMS 



During our stay at Darwin we were 

 the guests of Mr. Staniford Smith, at 

 Government House. And now we were 

 to be bewildered by an amazing array of 

 cables and telegrams. They arrived in 

 great fifteen-minute shoals from every 

 corner of the globe. 



What had gone wrong? Surely every 

 one had gone mad — or had we? Why 

 all this fuss and excitement ? In our race 

 across the globe we had not read a news- 

 paper, and, beyond the local natural at- 

 tention evinced at our numerous landing- 

 grounds, we knew nothing of the inter- 

 est the rest of the world was taking in 

 the flight. 



Great indeed was our astonishment 

 when, on turning up back files of news- 

 papers, we read of our exploits, recorded 

 with a degree of detail that must have 

 taxed »the imaginative resources of edi- 

 torial staffs to gray hairs. 



The rush, strain, and anxiety were 

 over ; henceforward the conclusion of our 

 flight across Australia could be under- 

 taken leisurely; and, what was more to 

 the point, we could afford to wait for the 

 best possible flying conditions. 



Much of the flight over featureless 

 wastes would have been drear and mo- 

 notonous, but it was Australia and that 

 was compensation enough. Moreover, 

 we had the occasional diversion of pass- 

 ing over the small out-back towns, where 

 many of the inhabitants rushed into the 



streets and stood looking up, waving and 

 cheering. 



The sublimest spectacle of the entire 

 flight from Hounslow to our journey's 

 end was to burst upon us when we ar- 

 rived over Sydney and its wonderful 

 harbor. 



Like a mighty fern-leaf, ramifying and 

 studded with islets, this glorious water- 

 way unfolded below. The city and its en- 

 virons, massed along the waterfront and 

 extending into the hinterlands, flanked by 

 the Blue Mountains, compose a spectacle 

 of exquisite charm and beauty.* 



We headed up the coast and, turning 

 through the entrance, entered the port. 



Planing down to 600 feet, we flew 

 above a myriad ferry-boats and vessels, 

 from the whistles of which little white 

 jets of steam spurted up, screaming a 

 welcome; then across the roof-tops, 

 where crowded waving and cheering hu- 

 manity, and over the streets below, where 

 little specks paused to look up and join 

 in the greeting. It was a great day — a 

 time that comes once in a lifetime. 



THE PRIZE IS DIVIDED EQUALLY 



Not the least pleasant incident upon 

 our arrival finally in Melbourne was the 

 paying over of the £10,000 prize by the 

 Prime Minister, the Right Hon. W. M. 

 Hughes, on behalf of the Commonwealth 

 Government. As all participated equally 

 in the perils and labors of the enterprise, 

 the prize was divided into four equal 

 shares. 



In Melbourne I formally handed the 

 Vimy over to the Commonwealth Gov- 

 ernment on behalf of Messrs. Yickers 

 Ltd., who generously presented the ma- 

 chine to the Commonwealth as an historic 

 relic of the first aerial flight from London 

 to Australia. At the request of the au- 

 thorities, I flew the machine on to Ade- 

 laide, my native city, and thus realized 

 to the full my ambition and dream of fly- 

 ing from London to my own home. 



It would be hard indeed to comprehend 

 the feelings that surged through me as I 

 landed the Vimy on the sod of my native 

 city — the recognition of familiar faces ; 

 the greeting of well-known voices ; the 



* See "Lonely Australia, the Unique Conti- 

 nent," by Herbert E. Gregory, in the National 

 Geographic Magazine for December, 1010. 



