travel

Miss Flinders: a pioneering plane

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In March 1932 the first regular air passenger service between Tasmania and Flinders Island was introduced by pilot and flying instructor L. M. (Laurie) Johnson.

His Desoutter II single-engined monoplane, given the name Miss Flinders, had been flown out from England between December 1931 and February 1932.

The plane, which could only carry two passengers, had a cruising speed of 140 to 160 kilometres an hour and the trip to Whitemark from Western Junction took about an hour.

Laurie Johnson had been the Tasmanian manager of Essendon-based Matthews Aviation who in 1930 had started a short-lived air service between Melbourne and Tasmania.

The Flinders Island service ran on Tuesdays and Fridays and on other days he offered joy flights from Western Junction and other airstrips.

In the first three months of operation Laurie Johnson’s Flinders Island Airways made 56 return flights to Whitemark carrying a total of 85 passengers as well as mail and freight.

Victor Holyman, who had been a World War I fighter pilot and was a ships captain in his family’s shipping company, watched the progress of the new air service closely.

Holymans, based in Launceston, operated numerous vessels across Bass Strait, including services to Flinders Island.

In September 1932 Holymans took delivery of a new de Havilland Fox Moth bi-plane to also service Flinders Island. The Fox Moth could carry four passengers at a maximum speed of 170 kph.

The Holymans called their plane Miss Currie.

Within weeks Laurie Johnson had agreed to merge with Holymans in a new company called Tasmanian Aerial Services.

The merger enabled the fledgling airline to expand its services along the Tasmanian coast to Latrobe, Wynyard, Smithton and King Island.

The success of these new services encouraged the airline to buy two eight-seater de Havilland biplanes they named Miss Launceston and Miss Hobart.

A service to Melbourne was introduced with the main pilots being Laurie Johnson and Victor Holyman. Tragically, in 1934 Victor Holyman and his passengers in Miss Hobart disappeared near Wilsons Promontory.

In 1935 Miss Flinders was sold back to de Havilland.

Laurie Johnson continued flying with Tasmanian Aerial Services which under Holymans management would grow into Australian National Airways, the biggest airline in Australia in the 1940s.

In later life Miss Flinders returned to Launceston, being on display at Launceston Airport, then a major exhibit at the Queen Victoria Museum at Inveresk, and finally back to Launceston Airport.

Launceston role in making the first Holden car

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In November 1946 it was announced that General Motors-Holden’s Ltd had reached an agreement to take over the Tool Annexe at the Launceston Railway Workshops to produce tooling for its proposed Australian-made car.

GMH had responded to a request from the federal government in 1945 to make a mass-produced Australian car. Up to this time most cars sold in Australia were either fully imported or assembled from components from overseas car makers.

The Examiner of Wednesday, November 20, 1946, reported that production details had been discussed between the GMH technical superintendent (Mr W. G. Davis). the Secretary for Transport (Mr A. K. Reid) and the administrative officer at the annexe (Mr P. H. Welch).

“Mr Davis will remain in Launceston as technical superintendent of production. He has had wide experience in engine manufacture … and recently joined General Motors as assistant chief inspector of mechanical operations.”

The Examiner said that since the end of World War II the Tool Annexe has been conducted by the Tasmanian Transport Commission and has been turning out tractor parts of such precision that only one-half of one per cent were rejected.

Mr Davis said various types of punches, dies, trimming tools, component parts and very large assembly jigs for sub-assembly and final assembly of panel would be made.

“The modern and very valuable equipment in the annexe and the high standard of workmanship attracted General Motors, and work which began in Launceston this week is one of the first practical steps in the actual production of Australian cars.”

Details of Australia’s first locally made car slowly emerged as production facilities were set up around the country.

At Woodville in South Australia the bodies and metal pressings for the new car were being produced at a £1,744,000 factory and at Fishermen’s Bend in Melbourne a 12,000 square metre plant was built for the manufacture of the engine, transmission and other basic car components.

GMH said that when the car was in full production it would provide direct employment for about 9000 Australians and indirect employment for thousands more in businesses supplying raw materials or specialised components for the new car.

It was announced that the new car would be simply called the Holden and would be priced at £733, which was about two years’ wages for an average worker at the time.

By the time Prime Minister Ben Chifley unveiled the first Holden 48-215 (later known as the FX) on November 29, 1948, it was announced that 18,000 people had already paid a deposit.

The first Holden car to come to Tasmania was unveiled by the Premier Robert Cosgrove in Hobart the following day. He said the development of the Holden marked Australia’s “growing up as a nation.”

Australians embraced the first locally mass-produced car and over the next five years 120,402 Holden vehicles were manufactured and sold.

Image — TOP: Holden cars roll off the Fishermen’s Bend production line factory. State Library of Victoria, public domain image.

Written for the Launceston Historical Society and published in The Sunday Examiner, on 29 October 2023.

65 years since the Pot sailed in

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When the new Bass Strait ferry Princess of Tasmania came into service on September 23, 1959, it was the first roll-on, roll-off passenger ship in the southern hemisphere.

Known affectionately as “the Pot,” the Princess of Tasmania plied between Melbourne and Devonport for 13 years and was promoted as a “searoad” that made it easy for motorists to drive between the mainland and Tasmania.

The Princess of Tasmania was built specifically for the Bass Strait service by the federal government-owned Australian National Line at the New South Wales State Dockyards in Newcastle.

It could carry 334 passengers and 142 cars and there was cabin accommodation as well as 140 lounge chairs where passengers could spend the 14-hour voyage. It made three return trips across Bass Strait a week.

With its stern-opening vehicle ramp allowing cars and trucks to drive into its hold, the Princess of Tasmania was part of a revolution in ship loading.

Passengers on its maiden voyage comprised mostly VIPs and politicians, including Premier Eric Reece and his wife Alice, as well as media representatives.

The Examiner sent reporter (and later editor) Michael Courtney and in his report he noted that on a cold night there were only about 100 people to see the ferry off in Melbourne.

However, when the Princess of Tasmania arrived in Devonport more than 8000 people lined the banks of the Mersey River to watch the ship arrive at its newly constructed roll-on, roll-off berth.

The Examiner described the ferry’s arrival in Devonport as “majestic”.

“When the Princess of Tasmania berthed at her terminal yesterday she completed a voyage which has evoked public interest and enthusiasm such as has not been seen before in Australian coastal shipping services.”

“Her appearance and appointments have impressed all who have seen her.”

The chairman of the Australian Coastal Shipping Commission, Captain J. P. Williams, told The Examiner that Tasmania was getting a shipping service as modern as any in the world.

Like its predecessor, the Empress of Australia operated on the Melbourne-Devonport run for 13 years before ownership of the service passed to the Tasmanian government and a new ship, the 10-year-old German-built Abel Tasman, was bought.

The Princess of Tasmania made nearly 2000 crossings of Bass Strait before being taken off the run in June 1972. It was replaced by another ANL-build roll-on, roll-off passenger ferry, the Empress of Australia, which had been built in 1964 for the Sydney to Devonport service.

The Abel Tasman was in turn replaced by another European-built ferry, the first Spirit of Tasmania, in 1994. The two current Spirit of Tasmania ferries, also built in Europe, commenced service in 2002.

Tasmania’s Bass Strait passenger ferries have been getting progressively bigger and more expensive since the Princess of Tasmania which was 113 metres long and cost weighed £2.5 million.

The two new Spirit of Tasmania ships, being built in Finland and due here soon, are nearly twice the size at 212 metres, are considerably faster and will cost close to $1 billion.

Image — TOP: The Princess of Tasmania in the Mersey River. ANL publicity photo, photographer unknown.

Written for the Launceston Historical Society and published in The Sunday Examiner, 29 September 2024.