Bundaberg takes Flight

Pandemonium broke loose when aviator Bert Hinkler landed in his hometown after completing the first solo flight from London to Australia in 1928. The official end-point for measuring success was Darwin, which he reached in a record-breaking fifteen and a half days. But for Hinkler the real destination was always Bundaberg, where his mother and siblings were waiting.

Thousands of people turned out to greet the Queensland pilot, with some newspaper accounts putting the number at around 20,000. When they spotted his tiny Avro Avian approaching the local recreation ground shortly after four o’clock on the afternoon of 27 February, motor car horns, sirens and the roar of the huge crowd merged to create a ‘terrific din’. As the plane’s wheels touched down people rushed onto the rain-sodden field, frantic with excitement. They overwhelmed the official party and dragged Hinkler from the cockpit, hoisting him onto their shoulders.