Podcast: The incredible true story of South Australian brothers Ross and Keith Smith and the first flight from England to Australia

IN 1919, two South Australian brothers pulled off a feat that world aviation experts now say was every bit as awesome in its day as man landing on the moon. Listen to their incredible true story. PODCAST

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IN 1919, two South Australian brothers pulled off a feat that world aviation experts now say was every bit as awesome in its day as man landing on the moon. Listen to their incredible true story in the latest episode of our local history podcast Heaps Good History.

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CHARLES Kingsford Smith is, rightfully, remembered as a legend in the history of Australian aviation. But over the decades, Smith’s fame has overshadowed the daring efforts of another pioneering aviation family with the Smith name, South Australian brothers Ross and Keith.

Nearly a century ago, in 1919, the Smith brothers, with Ross as pilot and Keith as navigator, pulled off an achievement some say was every bit as momentous in its day as man landing on the moon when they became the first Australians in history to fly a route from England to Australia.

And they did it against the elements, sitting in an open cockpit on a small wooden bench, with no way to communicate with the ground and nothing more than a compass to fix their long and dangerous journey.

The incredible feat was motivated by a 10,000 pound prize by the Australian government for the first all-Australian crew to make it from The Mother Country to Port Darwin in a British-made aircraft.

The Smith crew beat out four other daring Aussie teams to win the race in 11,500 miles (18,500km), 27 days and 20 hours.

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Ross and Keith were knighted by King George for their daring escapades and while Ross, tragically, was killed just two years after the race, the legend of the Vickers-Vimy flight lives on.

Sunday Mail columnist Lainie Anderson recently traced the crew’s epic journey as part of a Churchill Fellowship, visiting nine countries the crew made stops at in seven weeks.

“I certainly got absolutely obsessed with this story and it’s a story that just won’t leave me alone really,” Anderson says.

“I get readers constantly writing to me about it, asking me what’s going on and the more I’ve learnt about the story, the more I really believe that South Australia could really benefit from learning more this amazing tale.

“Unfortunately… Ross Smith has, by quirk of fate the same surname as Charles Kingsford Smith and I think because Ross died two years after the 1919 air race the story has been forgotten as, you know ‘later on Charles Kingsford Smith became such a hero, he’s one of our biggest names in aviation history and as a result this story has sadly been forgotten, when really in its day it was one of the most significant air feats in the history of aviation.”

Anderson met with aviation experts in the UK and the US, including Alex Spencer from Washington’s Smithsonian Institution, who told her the importance of the flight, and the Vickers-Vimy, to South Australia, couldn’t be overstated.

“I could not have scripted him better if I’d written the lines myself,” Anderson says.

“He basically just said ‘I don’t know why the Vickers Vimy out the back of your airport isn’t every bit as significant as the Spirit of St Louis is to America.”

“This race in its day was incredibly significant. It was about opening up communication lines, trade lines, defence routes.

The Vickers-Vimy in its current home, in a hangar at Adelaide Airport. Picture: Greg Barila

“It was about opening up empire, about bringing Australia to the Commonwealth and to Britain and it was so fantastic to hear that because I really think South Australians need to know just exactly what we’ve got here. We’ve got one of the most important aviation artefacts in the world and it’s in our own backyard.”

Anderson says there are no fixed plans for the centenary of the race, in 2019 but Adelaide Airport authorities have been “under pressure for many years now to move it to a new location in the airport where it has pride-of-place.”

“They’re on record as saying they love the plane as much as any other South Australians, they want to see it take pride of place.

The Smith Brothers. Keith and Ross. Photo: The South Australian Aviation Museum.

“It is a fragile object and it’s just a matter of working out what the best thing to do is while preserving it and also where it fits in with their long-term planning with the airport.”

The History Trust of South Australia was also “on the case”.

“I know that Greg Mackie, the CEO of the History Trust is very passionate about the plane so I think it’s a bit of a case of just watch this space in terms of what exactly happens in 2019.”

Got an idea for a future episode of the podcast? Let us know.

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