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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0467.PDF
Typically Australian modes of transport on the airfield at Toora weenah: a horse-drawn sulky and a Heron and DC-3 of Butler Air Transport. Forty years ago the 200-mile jour ney from Sydney to Tooraweenah, a small town in the prosperous sheep and wheat belt of central western New South Wales, took three days by stage-coach. Butler's Herons take 80 minutes—20 hours less than the railway. OUTBACK AIRLINE Butler Air Transport Introduces Herons on Australian Feeder Routes WITH a 3,300-mile network of routes between Sydney and various centres in New South Wales and Queensland, Butler Air Transport, Ltd., is claimed to be Australia's third largest airline and the largest intra state carrier. One small town which has benefited from the company's services is Tooraweenah, the setting of the attrac tive and typically Australian picture above. Although it has a population of only about 250, Tooraweenah is served by six return services weekly from Sydney, 200 miles to the south, since it forms a natural junction for longer flights terminating farther north at Moree, Walgett, Goondiwindi and St. George. The two latter airfields are connecting- points for services operated by Butler's associate, Queensland Airlines Pty., Ltd. Tooraweenah has personal associations for Mr. Arthur Butler, who founded his company in 1934 on securing the contract to fly British airmail between New South Wales and Charleville. Three years earlier he had flown from Lympne to Darwin, a distance of 10,425 miles, in a Comper Swift (75 h.p. Pobjoy "R" engine), beating C. W. A. Scott's record of 9 days 4 hr 11 min by I hr 42 min. En route from Darwin to a public reception in Sydney after break ing the record, he set the Swift down in the main (and only) street* at Tooraweenah. The aircraft was refuelled by a Mr. Hawkshaw Garling, who is accurately described by an Australian writer as "a remark able character," since he not only helped his brother to keep the general store, but was also the local "postmaster, stock and station agent, motor mechanic, men's barber and ladies' hairdresser, dentist, veterinary surgeon, undertaker, income tax assessor and 'bush lawyer'." Now in retirement, the versatile Mr. Garling has since become closely connected with Butler Air Transport: his daughter married the managing director, and his son is in charge of the airline's branch office in Tooraweenah. Douglas DC-3s, Avro Ansons and—since last October—de Havilland Herons make up the Butler fleet, which is based at Mascot, Sydney. Australian reports show that the two Herons, equipped as 14-seaters, are proving very popular with the public of New South Wales, and that the airline plans eventually to introduce these four-engined British feederliners on all its routes. Their introduction was an event of importance to the isolated communities which Butler serves, and one can readily believe the report that when the first Heron landed at Tooraweenah last November people drove many miles in cars and horse-drawn "sulkies" to inspect it. Aircraft are worked hard in Australia; according to our Commonwealth contemporary Aircraft, Arthur Butier expects an annual utilization of 2,630 hr from his Herons. The shortness of Heron stages—varying from 20 min to 2 hr— increases the proportion of time spent on the ground, but makes it unnecessary to carry meals or a stewardess to serve them. Butler's Herons are operated by two-man crews. Managing director Arthur Butler is remembered in England for his record- breaking flight from Lympne to Darwin in a Comper Swift in 1934.
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