In 1937 a Stinson aircraft disappeared less than an hour after leaving Brisbane with seven people on board. It took ten days and fifty men to rescue two survivors days after most of the searches were called off.

The journey began in Brisbane at the Archerfield Aerodrome. The Stinson aircraft departed just after 1pm on Friday, 19 February 1937, bound for Lismore. The weather was fine leaving Brisbane but closer to the border Norma Alma Steinhardt, a resident of Hillview, stated,

There was very very bad weather on that day. It was very cyclonic. The clouds were very very low and obscured all mountains… My son was running around the dining room table after lunch and said he was playing aeroplanes and he fell and said he had crashed. My husband [Charles Robert Steinhardt] said “Well son I don’t think you will be seeing any planes for a few days with weather like this”. I was very surprised to hear shortly afterwards the roar of a plane above the wind.

From Page 13 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

The plane was the Stinson aircraft, and soon after being seen in Hillview, it disappeared somewhere in the gorges of the McPherson Range on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. One of the survivors, Binstead recounts

As we approached the mountains I looked out the window a couple of times. I noticed that we appeared to be very close over the top of the trees, so close that I became very concerned about it. I looked towards the cockpit to see how the pilots appeared to be taking it, and I noticed that Shepherd, evidently talking to Boyden, was laughing.

After having another look outside at the trees I looked at Shepard again. The expression seemed to have changed on his face and he appeared to be reaching over with his left hand, as if to manipulate something or reach something.

From page 50 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

The plane was shaken by three consecutive bumps, the last being the worst stripping the plane of its wings as it crashed to the ground. This became Australia’s worst aviation disaster at the time and sparked one of the most intensive aerial searches in Australian history.

Both pilots perished on impact. Each pilot was an experienced aviator. Boyden, a veteran of Gallipoli and the Royal Air Force, was accustomed to difficult flying conditions. Shepard was younger but had flown the route numerous times.

On the ground, Binstead describes the crash,

The flames had a very big hold of the plane. I happened to look forward and I could see a man getting through what appeared to me to be a window

From page 51 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

That man was John Proud, the first to leave the plane. Even with a badly broken leg, he managed to get fellow passenger Joseph Binstead out. Both men then helped another survivor, James Westray. Proud recounts,

I heard two or three groans. There appeared to be one man on the middle seat on the right hand side and there was a man on the rear seat on the right hand side. There were two or three groans and then all was silent. At this time the flames from the engine were getting unbearable.

From page 86 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

The plane burned for 15 minutes. William Fountain and James Graham were unable to escape. Proud, Binstead, and Westray found themselves stranded, surrounded by deep gorges and rainforest, days away from the nearest property. They had no food, no water but plenty of rain. The inclement weather made it challenging to sustain a fire to aid in their discovery. Despite their efforts, their fire extinguished during the night.

Binstead described that first night during the inquest, 

After the fires went out we just sat around in the rain. It rained all night and until about ten o’clock next morning.

About 6.30 a.m. the next morning, Westray who was sitting down, got up and said “I see a farm down there with some sheep on it”. He was looking down towards the bottom of the valley. I think both Proud and I remarked there was no farm there and no sheep. He said “I think I’ll beat it”.

He would not be gone 30 seconds before he would be out of sight.

From page 54 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

Westray remarked to Proud that if he did not see the farm, he would continue until he found help. It was on that Saturday morning Proud and Binstead could hear the search planes scouring for the crash around McPherson Range, but the weather prevented them from lighting another fire. The official search parties concentrated on the area towards Newcastle and failed to discover the crash site. On Thursday, 25 February, a plane passed above them giving the men hope. Even though visibility was good, Proud and Binstead used their last match the day before and couldn’t light a fire to signal the plane.

Since the crash, Binstead supported Proud with his broken leg by travelling once a day to a nearby creek to collect fresh water and berries. This trip became more difficult as the men grew weaker. Proud’s broken leg prevented him from moving and the open compound fracture meant both Binstead and Proud had to use their clothing and supplies to try and keep the wound as clean as possible.

Despite several search planes, and a regular mail route over the McPherson Range, the crash site of the Stinson aircraft remained obscured by the rainforest.

Finding the survivors

Bernard O’Reilly, a resident of the Lamington and Hillview Districts, was convinced the plane could not have got over the range on account of the ‘terrible winds they’d had in the area that day’. Believing the plane could not have made it into New South Wales, O’Reilly decided to set out to find it himself a week after the crash.

I took sufficient food to keep me going for possibly four days, just bread and butter tea and sugar and a few onions. I took no blankets because I thought they might hinder me. I decided to go alone, for really half a dozen reasons. I have an opportunity of becoming fairly proficient in this business of exploring and I thought I could do the job better than anybody – I have been exploring there for many years

From page 98 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

Guiding O’Reilly was a map he marked with the route he believed the plane may have taken. The line on the map intersected four high points; Mt Widgee, the range between the north and south branches of Christmas Creeks and Point Lookout. He hacked his way through densely overgrown vines, climbing rugged and rocky terrain. O’Reilly was looking for signs of fire and it wasn’t until the second day of his hike into the McPherson range he heard a faint “coo-ee”. Initially O’Reilly didn’t respond, assuming they were made by another search party, but proceeded toward their location.  Following the “coo-ees” O’Reilly returned the call from Point Lookout and heard a response about 180 metres away.

From Binstead’s account,

On Sun. 28^th Feb last, about 4 p.m. I was sitting about 10 yards up the hill from the plane… and I heard what I thought was a “Coo-ee”. I called out to Proud to “Coo-ee”. He had a good strong pair of lungs and we got a reply back. We were not too sure then that it was anybody in particular, because the birds had often tricked us up. About an hour after, we got another “coo-ee”. This time we were quite sure… Half an hour after a man appeared. I asked his name and he said “Bernard O’Reilly”. We said “Hooray for O’Reilly” and drank his health with a mug of water… He then seemed to break up. He couldn’t talk. I thought I would cheer him up a bit by asking who won the Test Match. I forget now what he replied

From page 57 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

Proud remembered how quick that first encounter was,

He unpacked his bag and made us a cup of tea and I said “Well, look, it’s 4.30 now and you had better make your way down, and make the most of the hour of daylight left”. He got up and went almost immediately. He left with the statement that he would have 50 men and the Doctor up first thing in the morning.

From page 89 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

After learning that Westray had gone for help, O’Reilly decided to follow his tracks in case he was alive. Passing the stream Binstead was using for water, he discovered Westray’s tracks.

I followed the tracks down to the bed of the gorge. Whoever went down there and made those tracks showed a great deal of skill and common sense, or bushcraft, in avoiding these cliffs. It was dangerous country even for a chap who knew how to go there. That man must have used a good deal of gumption because he went the right way, the shortest way into the gorge, and having reached the gorge he took the shortest way to civilization, along the gorge. That lead down to Christmas creek.

From page 102 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

O’Reilly discovered a handprint in the mud while moving around the edge of a spring that was trickling down a cliff. It appeared Westray fell in the slimy mud, six metres down the cliff. After reaching the bottom, O’Reilly managed to pick up the trail again, following it along the creek another 700 metres before coming across Westray’s body resting peacefully against a rock.  

Planning a rescue

O’Reilly finished Westray’s journey, making it to a hut belonging to two men, the sons of John Buchanan, at 7.30pm. From there he rode with one of the men to the house of Mr Burgess who had a ute. The small party travelled to John Buchanan’s home in Lamington where O‘Reilly used a phone to inform Airlines of Australia of the survivors.

During the night, O’Reilly, the young Buchanan, Burgess and several others travelled to Hillview, a more central location, to coordinate the relief effort from Mr Bob Stephens’ Homestead.

O’Reilly, John Buchanan and Mr Stephens discussed how the rescue would unfold the next day. Supplies, horses and manpower were coordinated with help from Mr Stephens’ family and the Postmistress of Hillview.

They planned to form two rescue parties. O’Reilly’s rescue party was smaller. A dozen or so men including Dr Lawler who was practicing at Beaudesert, with the goal to reach the stranded men faster, bringing medical aid, eggs, brandy and milk. The party gathered close to Buchanan’s hut by 2am, ready to set out at daylight.

John Buchanan was organising a second larger rescue party that would proceed to cut a track through the dense rainforest from the West to reach the survivors and carry them out on stretchers. Heavy showers throughout the day made the hike wet and muddy. O’Reilly’s party retraced the route he initially took, taking the opportunity to move Westray’s body to a safer spot away from the creek. By 10.30am on Monday 1 March, O’Reilly and Stephens arrived first, followed by the rest of the party shortly afterwards. The Doctor assessed Proud’s leg while the rest got to work starting a fire and cutting a path to the top of the hill. Some men from the larger rescue party led by John Buchanan started reaching their camp from 5.00pm.

They were working on clearing a path wide enough to allow Proud and Binstead to be carried to Lamington on stretchers. The rescue parties tried to make Proud and Binstead’s final night on the McPherson Range comfortable before preparing to leave at dawn. On Wednesday 2 March at 5.30am Proud and Binstead started their journey on stretchers. Men were positioned along the path to help carry the stretchers and relieve the rescue parties. It took 10 and a half hours to carry the men through the rainforest to ambulances waiting at the bottom.     

O’Reilly was lauded as a national hero for finding and saving the two survivors of the crash. He documented his account of the rescue and published this in his 1942 book Green Mountains. A funeral service for those killed in the crash was held on Wednesday 3 March, 1937. An article from The Central Queensland Herald, 11 March 1937 reported,

Inquests into the pilots and the failure of the plane concluded that an abnormal downwind caused the crash. Reports of the plane being seen near Lismore, New South Wales, prevented an on-the-ground search of the McPherson Range earlier. As the coroner wrote after talking to Charles Robert Steinhardt on record, 

Those people with the fanciful imaginations who reported without any sense of responsibility that they saw the plane at so many places must now have very troubled consciences.

From page 28 of the inquest file, ITM3608740

Keefe, Second class Sergeant of the Beaudesert Police Division made a point of naming the men, to the best of his ability, that braved the McPherson Range to assist with the rescue. From his sworn statement,

I would like to take this opportunity cat to pay a tribute to the work performed by the men in clearing the track and rescuing those injured men as well as those people who supplied refreshments to them during the time. The work of those men under such conditions was wonderful. I have a list of their names.

C & J Fenton

Patrick, James and John Hodgson

J. Cahill

N & A Smith, also J. Smith

W. Walsh

D. Downe

J. Bishop

W. Hayes

J. Woods

N. Lees

Andrew and John Waters

K. Eustace

G., R. and A. Stephens also Ray Stephens

T. R Doyle

J. Leavy

P. O’Reilly

J. Buchanan

C.R. Steinhardt

E & A McQuilty

W. Leslie

E.J. Mutch

C.S. Smith and

P.J. Neill

There are other names which have been supplied to me –

James Waters,

M. O’Reilly

R. Buchanan

J. H. Rosser

I & V.M. Jackson

C.W. Dimmick

F. Montgomery

T. Lewis

E.C. Markwell

J. H. Waldrom

H. Meisner

A. McCall

S. McNellie

C. Nutley

H & G.C. Burgess

S. Silcock

J. & W Calville

T & A Wesley

L. Harmer

P. Keaveny

H. & R Arthy

T. Jackson and

C. Taffe

From page 38 of the inquest file, ITM3608740