QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Bert Hinkler

Born in Hornsheim in Prussia in 1855, John William Hinkler migrated to Queensland, arriving at Moreton Bay on the La Rochelle . He then moved northwards where he worked as a stockman and mill worker. John married Frances Atkins Bonney at the home of the bride’s parents at Excelsior Road in Gympie. They settled at 69 Gavin Street, North Bundaberg, where they raised their five children, with the eldest, Herbert John Lewis (Bert) Hinkler, born on 8 December 1892.

The racecourse smash brought Hinkler his big opportunity. He assisted Stone with repairs and, as a result, got a job as a mechanic with him, during which he toured Australia and New Zealand. After this stint with Stone, Bert departed for England, where he worked as a mechanic with Sopwith Aviation Company. At the outbreak of World War I, Bert joined Britain’s Royal Naval Air Services and volunteered as a gunner and observer with the Royal Flying Corps. He went on bombing missions in France and Belgium – fighting against his father’s former homeland of Germany. It must have aroused very mixed feelings in him – and he is reported to have been repelled by one of his duties, the work of ‘ground strafing’ Austrian troops. After the war, Bert became a test pilot for A V Roe (Avro) and, in 1919, inspired by Ross and Keith Smith’s epic flight from London to Australia in a converted Vickers Vimy bomber, he embarked on a series of record setting flights himself, beginning in 1920 with a flight from London to Turin in his Avro Baby aircraft. The following year he took it to Australia by ship and flew from Sydney to hometown Bundaberg, where he landed in the main street amidst much jubilation and taxied it to his family’s front door at 69 Gavin Street. Imagine his parents’ surprise and pride!

Bert Hinkler was always fascinated with birds’ ability to fly, and when the Wright brothers first flew in 1903 above the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, Bert determined to emulate their feat. So when he was 18, he joined the Aerial League of Australia and the Queensland Aero Club. Learning mechanics by correspondence in 1911, he built two gliders in 1911-12; the second design was based on his own observation and analysis, including photographs, of ibises in flight. But an application to join the new aviation section of the Australian army was rejected. Then in May 1912 an American stunt pilot, Arthur “Wizard” Stone visited Bundaberg with his Bleriot monoplane. Because Bundaberg’s aviation area was a mass of tree stumps, the plane could not be flown; instead was exhibited there in a tent, under the auspices of Mr Philip Lytton. Before the time of exhibition arrived a boy was caught scrambling under the tent covering and was unceremoniously ejected. The boy was, of course, Bert Hinkler. Later ‘Wizard’ Stone and Lytton noticed Bert experimenting on the riverbank with a box kite. Thus aviator and student met. A week later Hinkler, with his father, was at Rockhampton, crazed at seeing Stone’s monoplane in flight. However Stone’s venture came to a disastrous conclusion when the second of two flights, which he made from the Rockhampton racecourse, ended in a crash. Bert’s intense focus is clear, even in this undated family photograph, as he stands behind his mother. Below right: his somewhat bemused but obviously proud mother is shown an aero-engine. Images courtesy State Library of Queensland

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