An amazing bush rescue

In February 1937, a young farmer, Bernard O’Reilly, was tending his stock on the family farm in the McPherson Ranges, not far from Brisbane. A cyclone appeared imminent, and strong wind gusts gave O’Reilly cause for concern. He was, however, unaware that some 35 kilometres to the west, sole survivors John Proud, Joe Binstead and Jim Westray were struggling out of the burning wreckage of a Stinson airliner which had crashed into a hillside in the vast and rugged McPherson Ranges.

As a result of the cyclone, miles of telephone wires had been ripped away, and it was not until 10am the next day that, O’Reilly heard news of the missing plane, which had been last seen south of Coff’s Harbour. As the days went by a major, but quite unsuccessful search was undertaken, until then the most intensive aerial search in Australia’s history, involving the RAAF and almost every civilian aircraft on the east coast. The search was eventually abandoned, despite Mr Proud’s mother putting up £500 for it to be continued.

Credible indications came forward that the plane had been spotted over the Hawkesbury River wilderness near Sydney, and that its wreckage had been seen off Palm Beach. Its sighting had actually been recorded in the log-book of a steamship off Barrenjoey Heads. After a long week, everyone had come to the sad conclusion that the Stinson must have crashed into the vast Pacific Ocean, with the loss of all on board.