Chapter 4: The Bureau Begins to Grow (continued)

After the ANA Fokkers were introduced as passenger carrying aircraft, the DH86, a De Havilland four-engine biplane, was used by Holyman's airline between Melbourne and Tasmania. Qantas also used DH86 aircraft. When a Douglas DC2 flown by pilots of a Dutch airline came second in the MacRobertson England to Australia air race in 1934, Australian airlines became interested in the all-metal American built aircraft.

In 1936 the Bungana, a DC2, was bought by Holyman and was flown on the Melbourne-Perth run by Eric Baker and Frank Collopy, well before Ansett commenced operations. I flew to Perth on the Bungana in 1937, I remember that I got transport from Parafield aerodrome into Adelaide with the aircrew and John Lillywhite (who was one of the meteorological staff at Parafield) because we overnighted at Adelaide. The aircraft used to take off from Melbourne about 4pm, remaining overnight at Parafield. It took off at first light next morning and, taking all day, proceeded to Perth, landing at Ceduna, Forrest and Kalgoorlie on the way.

The DC2 was a new generation aircraft with advanced avionics which was introduced into Australian airlines in late 1935 or early 1936. The Fokkers and the De Havillands had been operating for some time but had much more primitive equipment. The DC2 had sensitive altimeters Which gave an accurate reading of height which was very useful when landing through overcast low cloud, provided that an accurate reading of atmospheric pressure was available from the aerodrome for which they were heading.

Bureau of Meteorology