QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

2008 Bundaberg treasures

1938

The house that Hinkler built

Hinkler Hall of Aviation

The modest semi-detached house which Hinkler built in Southampton in 1925 while he was work ing at Avro was saved from demolition in 1983 by the alert president of the Hinkler Lions Club on the other side of the world at a cost of just £1 … plus shipping. Only the second time an historic home has been relocated brick by brick from Europe to Australia (the first was Cook’s Cottage, transferred from Yorskhire to Melbourne in 1933-34), Hinkler’s Mon Repos was so painstakingly dismantled and re-assembled 16,300km away that the same nails were put back into the same nail-holes by a team of dedicated volunteers. The memorial cairn, erected in memory of Hinkler after his death in Italy, stands in Buss Park in the centre of Bundaberg. Until the relocation of Mon Repos , this was the principal monument to the town’s aviator. 1948 image courtesy of State Library of Queensland

Mon Repos was rebuilt in the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens, overlooking the site of Hinkler’s landing 80 years before. After 25 years as Bundaberg’s principal Hinkler museum, it was complemented on 7 December 2008 with the official opening of the adjacent Hinkler Hall of Aviation. Five aircraft, including an Avro Avian and de Havilland Puss Moth, form the core of this award-winning “aviation adventure experience”, accompanied by interactive exhibits telling the life stories of this inventive and popular hero. From July 2012 for five years, Hinkler’s Avro Baby will be on display loan from the Queensland Museum. A covered walkway links the two buildings, Mon Repos furnished to reflect Hinkler’s more private life of the 1920s and 1930s. hinklerhallofaviation.com

Bundaberg

Hervey Bay

The federal electorate of Hinkler (map, left) was created in 1984, covers an area of approximately 3,504km 2 and today is home to more than 96,000 people. Sugar, small-crop farming (including tomatoes, avocados and macadamia nuts), rum, fishing and seafood industries, tourism and whale-watching are key features of the sub-tropical Hervey Bay region about 300km north of Brisbane. Many other reminders of Hinkler can be found on the streets of Bundaberg and, although John Hinkler’s house no longer stands, it is possible to walk the two blocks down Gavin Street, along which he taxied his plane, to the playing fields on which he landed in 1928.

Burnett River

Bruce Highway

Point Vernon

Childers

Hervey Bay

Howard

Urangan

Fraser Island

Mary River

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