A seaplane circles a continent

Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre completed the first flight around Australia when they landed their Fairey IIID seaplane at St Kilda on 19 May 1924.

They were greeted by 10,000 people on the Esplanade at the end of a 13,700 km journey dogged by terrible weather. This film describes the aviators upon arrival as ‘tired and tanned with their uniforms tattered and oil splashed’.

While flying up the east coast of Australia they experienced constant engine trouble. They persevered but were forced to pick up a mechanic at Darwin and replace the engine at Carnarvon.

Goble wrote in his report, 'We were always tired by the time we got into the air, owing to the strain of watching the machine, the manual labour involved in doing running repairs and humping drums of petrol’.

For their great effort Goble and McIntyre received the British Royal Aero Club’s Brittania Challenge Trophy for the year's most meritorious performance in aviation.