Services
pp. 19-20 · Read in the full issue
New Guinea Air
Bureaucracy Wants New Route Via Thursday Is. and Daru
AUSTRALIAN ministers and depart mental hfeads have been talking a good deal about aviation in New Guinea; but what has been said does not seem to mean much.
The Civil Aviation Board, for instance, has recommended the establishment of a weekly air service for mails, passengers, and freight between Australia and New Guinea, connecting Sydney and Salamaua by way of Brisbane, Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns, Cooktown, Horne Island, Daru, and Wau.
Horne Island is near Thursday Island, and Daru is near the mouth of the Fly River in the extreme west (and unde veloped) end of Papua.
The identity of the genius who planned out this route is a source of curiosity to everyone connected with New Guinea and Papua. The idea apparently is that, if aeroplanes fly from the tip of Cape York Peninsula across to the western end of Papua, they will have a much shorter sea crossing than from Cairns or Cooktown across to Port Moresby. But the designer of the plan apparently overlooked the fact that from Cooktown to Cape York is practically desert; while from Daru to Wau, around the top of the Gulf of Papua, the aeroplanes will have to cover over 300 miles of useless, trackless tropical jungle. The value of the service to Papua would be almost nil, because there would have to be a feeder service from Wau southwards to Port Moresby.
The water-hop from the Australian coast, near Cooktown, to Port Moresby, has no terrors for good machines. It is no longer than the water-hop between Darwin and Timor, which the aeroplanes of the Anglo-Australian air mail service have been crossing regularly without an accident for over a year.
However, the pundits apparently are still arguing, for although it was an nounced early in November that tenders for this service “would be called for next week,” tenders have not been called yet.
It is to be hoped that wiser counsels will prevail and that the route for the new service will be the natural one via Townsville, Cooktown, and Port Moresby, which will allow first-class machines (and none other should be contemplated) to reach the settled end of Papua and the goldfields of New Guinea, from Bris bane, in one day.
That “Merger” Again.
It was announced at the end of Novem ber that as soon as his duties will permit, the Controller-General of Civil Aviation (Captain E. C. Johnston) will leave for New Guinea to try to arrange the merger of the aircraft companies operating there.
This announcement appeared to take the New Guinea companies by surprise.
The merger plan was regarded by them as dead; but, apparently, the Civil Avia tion Board is of opinion that a greater measure of control over the operations and freight rates of the various com panies, as distinct from the technical supervision already exercised, would be desirable.
At present there are only three air transport companies operating in the Mandated Territory. Guinea Airways Limited and Holden’s Air Transport Ser vices Limited are now virtually one con cern, some amalgamation of interests having taken place; Carpenter Airways and Pacific Aerial Transport Company Limited have amalgamated and are now one company under the title of Mandated Airlines Limited; and the third concern is Mr, E. J. Stephens’ service.
According to the Civil Aviation Board these companies on June 30, operated the following aircraft: —Guinea Airways and Holdens, 21; Carpenters and P.A.T, Co., 7; and Stephens, 1. These numbers have since been increased, and now are ap proximately as follows: —Guinea Airways, 23; Mandated Airlines, 8; and Stephens, 3. On June 30, there were in New Guinea 5 licensed “A” pilots, 28 licensed “B” pilots, and 42 licensed ground-engineers.
A correspondent in the Watut district, New Guinea, writing in the Rabaul Times recently said: “I do not think there can be any further reduction in aerial freight rates; no one could growl at them now.
There should be an end of the compulsory merger bogey, and the bitter feeling en gendered by that proposal.”
(Continued overleaf.)
Sydney To Wau.
During the month two interesting flights from Australia to New Guinea were made by aeroplanes operated by the two major aviation companies concerned with the proposed Sydney-Salamaua air service.
On November 28, Pilot T. O’Dea and Assistant Pilot L. H. Ross, with two pas sengers, took off from Brisbane at 4.15 a.m. in Guinea Airways’ Lockheed Electra monoplane for the N.G. goldfield. Travel ling via Townsville, Cooktown, Port Moresby, Wau, and Salamaua the party landed at Lae (G.A’s headquarters) at 3.15 p.m., averaging 180 miles an hour for the 1,800 miles. This flight established a record between Brisbane and Port Moresby of 9 hours 20 minutes.
Flying the largest British machine yet seen in Australia, Mr. Richard Mant, chief pilot for Mandated Airlines Ltd. left Sydney on December 1 for New Guinea in the Avro 642 monoplane recently as sembled at Mascot for Messrs. W. R. Car penter and Co. Ltd. With his wife and 10-months-old son, Gordon, as passengers, Mr. Mant made the flight in easy stages, arriving at Wau on December 3, after calls at Brisbane, Rockhampton, Townsville, Pt.
Douglas and Pt. Moresby.