THE KOOKABURRA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 13

THE KOOKABURRA

A PROSPECTOR’S STORY. PLANE SHORT OF TOOLS. (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) ADELAIDE, May 3. Martin Krommer, gold prospector, now visiting Adelaide, tells of a romantic meeting with Lieutenant Anderson and Mr Hitchcock 34 miles south of Oodnadatta on April 9. Krommer was sitting on the roadside when the Kookaburra alighted nearby. He hurried to the plane and saw the aviators examining the engine. ' Lieutenant Anderson asked Mr Hitchcock for the box of tools. Mr Hitchcock replied: “ Somebody stole them while 1 was in hospital.” (Mr Hitchcock had a bad illness some time before the flight). Lieutenant Anderson retorted: “ Why didn’t you tell he at Broken Hill?” They worked on the engine, using a screwdriver as a chisel and the end of a corkscrew .as a hammer. They had difficulty in getting into the air until Krommmer held one wing and Mr Hitchcock the other, then both thanked Krommer, shook hands, and flew away. Krommer said it seemed that the aviators were very short of tools due to theft by somebody, COMPASS OF THE PLANE. NOT SUFFICIENTLY TESTED. SYDNEY, May 3. It has now been disclosed ""that tho compass with which Lieutenant Anderson and Mr Hitchcock wer taken so far but of their course on the ill-fated Kookaburra flight was fitted into the plane only the day before it left Richmond. The compass was that used by Captain Lancaster in his flight from England in the , Red Rose with Mrs Miller, and it had not been used or tested since then. ANDERSON’S MISFORTUNES. AN INTIMATE PICTURE. . (From: Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 25. Keith Anderson, dead in a hero’s grave in the centre of Australia, is a man who seems to have been dogged by bad luck, and maybe because of this his death is the more generally mourned. The circumstances attending his sacrifice have also impressed the public mind, and there is profound sympathy for his mother in Perth, prostrated as she is with grief. This brave woman had confidence in her son all through the trying search. She said that he would found alive. Then, on Monday morning, when she was reading her newspaper at the breakfast table, she read the news that dashed her hopes—news that dashed the hopes of thousands of others throughout the length and breadth of Australia. Keith Anderson was one of those originally selected to cross the Pacific in the Southern Cross, and tho reasons why he was omitted from . the crew have never been made known, and perhaps they never will. It is known that Anderson was a disappointed man, for he lived for the air. The latest mode of travel was his hobby—nay, more than a hobby. He lived for nothing else. Then, after the return of the Southern Cross, litigation followed, and it was announced that this had been. settled. .Although the terms were not disclosed, it is known that Anderson received from Kingsford-Smith and Uhn £IOOO, and the public felt that this was but justice. When he-parted company with Kings-ford-Smith he was hard hit—in heart and in pocket, Anderson’s next .venture was for ah all-British flight to England. He and Hitchcock, who went with him to his death, were to set out for England in an attempt to break a record. Once again fate was unkind to him. At Pine Creek, in the Northern Territory, he was forced to “ pancake ” his machine, which became a total loss. Cruel things were said of Anderson then. They suggested that he never intended to fly to England—that he intended to crash. Those who were familiar with Anderson knew that this was a libel, and told everybody so. And Anderson came back to Sydney, wan and haggard and 'almost penniless. However, the reverses did not affect these two pals. Intermittently they worked at Mascot, the Symey aerodrome—Anderson as a pilot for various civil flying companies, and Hitchcock as a mechanic. Settlement of the case with Kingsford-Smith and Ulm gave them their chance—the chance they wanted. Anderson bought a plane, .the plane in which he eventually crashed to his death. He sank every penny into the Kookaburra, and he had planned to make a light plane do what a light plane had never done before. All was ready and he heard the silent call from the Southern Cross. He answered the call. He has not returned from it, and he never will. He will be buried where his beloved plane was found, and the spot will be prominently marked marked for all time as a reminder to those who in the future may traverse Central Australia of a brave sonl. : The pathos of Anderson’s career is not likely to be forgotten.