Guess Who?

On the left, our old New Guinea friend, Ray Parer, then Lientenant R. J. Parer, AFC; and on the right, Lieut. J. C. Mclntosh, AFC, with whom, in 1920, he made that extraordinary flight from England to Australia. This photo graph was taken just after they had arrived at their destination. They flew an old De Havilland 9, which they picked up in England for £7O, and they took seven months to com plete the flight. They had few maps, almost no navigational aids and landed on any piece of ground that looked flat enough from the air to do so. They had no money and stunted their way along—Mclntosh, the engineer, risking his life —by standing on a wing and climbing hand-over-hand from wing-tip to wing-tip. When they crossed the Timor Sea on the final leg of the journey they used inflated motor-tyres

spread with wire-netting underneath (as pro tection against sharks) to be used as dinghies if they had to land in the sea. When they landed in Darwin the old plane was literally tied together with wire. It is interesting to note that the men still wore Army uniform, with the AIF rising-sun badge. The RAAF had not then been born.

And now 36 years on? We know that Ray is in smallships in New Guinea. But what of the handsome Mclntosh? Parer still rates two inches in Australian "Who's Who", but there is no mention of Mclntosh.

This photograph was used as a Shell Co. advertisement in the September issue of "Air ways", a Qantas publication, and it is by courtesy of the Shell Co. that it is reproduced here.