SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 259, 1 November 1928, Page 7

SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA.

'Plane Over "Desert Of Abysmal

Loneliness."

MAKING FOE DARWIN,

SYDNEY, October 31

Captain Frank Hurley and FlyingOfficers Moir and Owen, who are attempting to fly to London in ten days in the monoplane Spirit of Australia, landed at Oodnadatta, in the northern part of South Australia, at 2.5 p.m. to-day (South Australian time).

The airmen had hopped off from Broken Hill at 6 a.m. There was a strong head wind nearly all the way. The 'plane passed over a considerable extent of desert on which were straggling clumps of mulga bush.

Captain Hurley describes this area as "a wilderness of abysmal loneliness."

In an interview at Broken Hill last night Captain Hurley explained that he does not intend to take a serious view of delays, as the time for the flight te England will not start until the monoplane leaves Wyndham, in the north of Western Australia.

He intends to stay for a few hours at Wyndham to examine the engine before crossing the ocean to Andir, in the Dutch East Indies. He will then go on to Point Victoria, Burma.