27 August 1928 Kingsford-Smith and the ‘Southern Cross’

After an all night flight from Perth Squadron-Leader Kingsford- Smith and the crew of the ‘Southern Cross’ landed at Parafield at 7.48 am on 27 August 1928. They were returning from a non-stop flight from Melbourne to Perth which took 23 ½ hours and was described as ‘a feat unparalleled in Australia’. An official party and some 2000 people were present to welcome Kingsford-Smith and his crew and later in the morning they visited the Governor and the Lord Mayor and were given a luncheon at Parliament House. It was in the ‘Southern Cross’ that Kingsford-Smith, Flight-Lieutenant Ulm and two Americans made the remarkable flight across the Pacific just a few months earlier. Kingsford-Smith and Bert Hinkler helped to pave the way for the civil aviation industry. The report in the Advertiser on the flight stated:

we have had a practical demonstration of the possibility of aerial travel over sea and land on a scale which a few years ago would have been a mere subject of dreams.

In the 1980s a group of enthusiasts built a replica of the ‘Southern Cross’ which was flown to various places in Australia on exhibition.

125 Years of The Advertiser, Advertiser Newspaper , 1983, p.119.