Norman Brearley Remembered

In 1914, whilst in his final year of an engineering course, war erupted in Europe. Brearley was one of the many thousands of young Australians who headed off to England to fight for King, Country and Empire.

Norman joined the Royal Flying Corps, and after basic training – with the emphasis on basic-he took his first solo flight after only 1 hour and 50 minutes of tuition. He was soon posted to France as a fighter pilot where he was later shot down and wounded. After recovering from his wounds and in recognition of his exceptional flying abilities displayed in France, he was given command of the Instructors’ School of Special Flying which taught advanced flying skills to experienced pilots.

By the end of the war, Brearley had attained the rank of Major, and had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross, these being presented to him by King George V at a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace.

Major Brearley returned to Perth in 1919, and brought with him two war surplus Avro 50 4 aircraft (one of which was later registered G-AUCL). He then embarked on barnstorming demonstration flights throughout the State, illustrating to the Government and the public the potential of aircraft to conquer the vast distances and isolation of outback Australia.

Like most aviators of the period, Brearley initially flew from local racecourses and ovals, but soon moved his operations right into the heart of Perth, where he commenced flying from Langley Park, on the banks of the Swan River. By coincidence, Michael Durack, the State Parliamentarian for the remote Kimberley region – an area that in later years Brearley would be instrumental in ‘opening up’-had a large house opposite Langley Park. Brearley persuaded the politician to let him build a hangar for his aircraft at the bottom of the garden, and so Perth’s first airport was established.

In an even stranger quirk of fate, Durack’s young daughter Mary (later Dame Mary Durack, noted author) would later marry another aviation pioneer, Horrie Miller, who in 193 4 would ironically, take over many of the routes pioneered by Norman Brearley. His company, MacRobertson Miller Aviation Company, eventually became Ansett WA.

In 1921, the Federal Government recognised that the aeroplane was the only practical means of transport that could link many of the remote centres of Australia. It called tenders for the country’s first air service which was to be along the north west coast of Western Australia between the towns of Geraldton and Derby. Services were not allowed to originate in Perth, due to the State Government’s concern for competition with the rail service. The tender, which attracted a great deal of interest, was awarded to Brearley in August 1921. Operations on the 2,000km route were to commence by the end of the year.

Brearley had been extremely confident of winning the contract, and had in fact tentatively ordered six BristolTourer aircraft from England. These were passenger planes converted from World War I Bristol F. 2B Fighters. On being awarded the contract, Brearley immediately telegraphed the Bristol Aeroplane Company and told them to send the machines to Australia on a ‘qash on delivery’ basis. He then found himself in an awkward dilemma, as some of the promised financial backers got ‘cold feet’ and let him down. Brearley then turned to a well known Victorian farm machinery manufacturer, H V McKay, who pressured the Federal Government into a guarantee for a bank overdraft to pay for his machines.

Thus Western Australian Airways Ltd (later shortened to West Australian Airways)-Australia’s first airline-was born.

Brearley’s next task was to select suitable pilots for the airline Brearley’s next task was to select suitable pilots for the airline. He was not impressed with the flying skills of many of the hot shot wartime fliers who sought jobs with his company, and insisted that all of his pilots should have the right temperament demanded for commercial operations. He required all applicants to undertake a flight test under his personal supervision, and then hand picked those he wanted. One of the first pilots he chose was the young Charles Kingsford Smith.

In a ceremony at Langley Park on Saturday 3rd December 1921, the Western Australian Governor officially inaugurated the new airline service. Bristol Tourers G-AUDI, G-AUDG and G-AUDX were flown to Geraldton in preparation to commence the inaugural service on the following Monday morning.

Shortly after taking off from Geraldton on December 5th, Tourer G-AUDG, flown by Len Taplin, developed engine trouble and set down safely in a paddock near Murchison House Station. Another pilot, Bob Fawcett, made a low pass over the downed aircraft to see if he could assist, but then lost control of his Bristol Tourer G-AUDI and crashed into the ground, killing himself and his mechanic Edward Broad.

It was not an auspicious start to Australia’s first airline service.

Politician Michael Durack and journalist Geoffrey Jacoby were passengers in Brearley’s aircraft. They convinced Brearley that he should suspend the new service immediately, and not resume until the Commonwealth upgraded the airstrips and provided emergency landing grounds along the route, as they had promised. It was late February 1922 before the landing grounds were upgraded and the service resumed.

It is also interesting to note that in these early days, airlines such as West Australian Airways (and later Qantas) would not have been able to exist without substantial Government subsidies. In Brearley’s case, the service was tendered out on an annual basis, and in the first year the subsidy amounted to $50,000. The subsidy was increased in later years, as was the term of the contract (to three years). WAA, and to a lesser extent, Qantas, received the lion’s share of the available funds for more than a decade, and this caused considerable resentment from the rest of the aviation industry which was virtually starved of Government funds.

January 1924 saw the service extended south from Geraldton to Perth, as the Government no longer considered the air service would have a detrimental effect on the railway service linking those two centres. The same year also saw the airline’s first and only industrial dispute, when the pilots went on strike for higher wages. The pilots were paid £600 per year when the base wage for other workers was only £200 per annum, and they only flew two or three days each week. In Brearley’s words, “They could go fishing or shooting at idyllic locations on their days off” – but they wanted more. Brearley would not budge to their demands. He sacked the ringleaders, including Charles Kingsford-Smith, and then went to the Eastern States and hired new pilots.

Brearley considered it was more economical and practical to build his own airliners, rather than importing them from England. In 1926, therefore, he arranged with the de Havilland Company to build three DH. 50 aircraft under licence in WAf!,;,s workshops at Maylands. The first of the aircraft, G-AUFD, flew that same year, and all were used mainly on the airline’s coastal route to the north. Additionally, three two seater Moth biplanes were also built.

Perhaps Australia’s infant aircraft manufacturing industry could have been strengthened by this venture, but unfortunately Brearley closed down the production line after his own requirements had been met.

In 1928 tenders were called for a weekly air service between Perth and Adelaide, and Brearley was one of the 21 operators to bid for the contract. His was the successful bid, and operations commenced in June 1929. This first transcontinental air service left Perth each Tuesday morning at 9. 30am, and arrived in Adelaide at 1. 00pm the next day. T he £18 fare included the cost of accommodation for the overnight stopover at Forrest, on the Nullabor Plain, at house specially built by the airline. T his route then had the highest load factor of any airline route in Australia.

To aid operations, hugh sperry revolving light beacons were erected atop 50ft (15m) high towers at strategic points across the Nullabor, to provide guidance for night flying. Quite a far cry from the satellite navigation systems in today’s modern jets!

In the 1920s, Brearley’s West Australian Airways was by far the most successful airline in Australia – even surpassing the later established Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (Qantas). In fact, Qantas founder Sir Hudson Fysh (in his book ‘Qantas Rising’) wrote: “It must be recorded that Norman Brearley had established the first well organised air transport operation in Australia in 1921, and his operation was superior to our own more groping endeavour. He showed the way to us all. ”

• Norman Brearley also extended his aviation ventures into flying training, setting up the Perth Flying School at Maylands in 1927 and using the three Moth aircraft that his company had built. Brearley would later become the first President and Life Member of the WA Aero Club (later the Royal Aero Club of WA), Australia’s largest aero club.

Airline flying during the 1920s was often anything but routine. Brearley’s machines were engaged in a number of major aerial searches in Western Australia, including: the 1928 Coffee Royal affair, in which Kingsford Smith and Ulm in Southern Cross were lost in the Kimberley region for 12 days; the 1932 search for German Fliers Bertram and Klausmann, who were lost in the Kimberley region for 40 days the 1932 search for Lasseter’s (lost gold) Reef, in the Great Victoria, and the rescue of prospector Paddy Whelan.

After pioneering Australia’s first air route, Brearley lost the north west coastal contract in 1934 to Horrie Miller’s MacRobertson Miller Aviation Company, then based in Adelaide. Two years later, Brearley sold West Australia Airways and the rights to the Perth/Adelaide route to the newly formed Australian National Airways Ltd, the second company to bear the name incorporated. By coincidence, both of these airlines were later taken over by Ansett Airlines, and the routes Brearley pioneered over sixty years ago are still flown as part of the Ansett network.

Brearley retired briefly from the aviation scene, but the outbreak of the Second World War saw him again in uniform for his country. As Group Captain Norman Brearley, he commanded No. 4 Service Flying Training School at Geraldton, and later other RAAF establishments throughout the Eastern States. With the cessation of hostilities, Brearley returned to his retirement which had been interrupted for 5 years by the war.

In his later years Norman Brearley was most active in a new field – that of an inventor – and his aviation and engineering background stood him in good stead. Several of his inventions were bought by interstate companies and put into production.

It is a national disgrace, however, that recognition of Brearley’s services to Australian Aviation was so very late in coming. Long overdue recognition was eventually forthcoming in several ways, including: the naming of the main road into Perth Airport, Brearley Avenue, in 1962; a knighthood in 1971 for his services to Australian aviation; the award of the prestigious Oswald Watt Gold Medal in1974; and the renaming of Geraldton Air Terminal, from whence Australia’s first airline service was flown, to Brearley Terminal in 1979.

After a long and distinguished career dedicated to Australian aviation, Sir Normal Brearley died in Perth in 1989. The safe and routine operations of today’s major airlines owe much to the foresight and vigour of Norman Brearley in setting up Australia’s first airline some 70 years ago. Vale – Sir Norman.