Emeritus Professor Richard Broome AM FRHSV and the Council of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria have much pleasure in inviting our members and friends to the launch of our exhibition,

Tales from the MacRobertson International Air Races

with
Mr Richard Mendelsohn, Honorary Consul, Kingdom of the Netherlands
Mr Richard Champion de Crespigny AM

Curators: Mr Noel Jackling OAM, Dr David Thompson FRHSV, Mr John McCulloch

In October 1934 a great air-race was planned from London to Flemington, Melbourne. From a field of 20 planes just 12 arrived. The winner took a whisker under 3 days; the last entrant arrived in February 1935. The best known tale is of the Dutch plane, Uiver, which made an emergency landing in Albury during a wild storm; the locals used the town’s lights to flash morse code to the plane and then lit the race-track, a make-shift aerodrome, with their car-headlights. Flight was one of the last frontiers and all the tales are unashamedly romantic and full of derring-do.

Please note that because of COVID we are restricted in the number of people who can attend this event and only people who have RSVPed will be allowed entry. Wearing of masks, electronic record keeping and sanitising of hands on arrival is mandatory.