Five headstones standing sentinel

 When you see five headstones side by side with the same date of death, most carved with "accidently killed..." you go searching for information.

This was the case with a row of headstones located near the Merchant Navy Memorial in the Anglican section of Rookwood Necropolis.

Let me tell you the story behind these headstones...

THE LORD HOWE ISLAND PLANE CRASH 1948

But firstly.

Lord Howe Island is a crescent shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand and is part of the state of New South Wales. It is 780 kms northeast of Sydney, 600 kms east of Port Macquarie and 900 kms south of Norfolk Island. It is only 10k long and only up to 2kms wide. Most of the small population, under 400, lives in the Northern part and the South are dominated by forested hills rising to 875 metres at their peak at Mount Gower. The area consists of 28 islands and rocks.


Lord Howe Island showing mountainous terrain - Wikipedia

Its industries are in Kentia Palm and Tourism; only up to 400 tourists are able to visit at a time in order not to overwhelm the islands. (I like the sound of that!) The attraction is the natural and dramatic beauty of the group, with hiking, bushwalking, fishing, scuba diving and searching for its unique natural flora, native birds and animals all making for a “back to nature” experience.

Lord Howe Island was first discovered by Lieutenant Henry Ball, commander of the First Fleet ship, Supply, in 1788, while en-route between Sydney cove and the penal colony of Norfolk Island. He named the uninhabited island after British Admiral Richard Howe. The island was first settled in 1834 when three couples arrived from New Zealand. Later Lord Howe Island acted as a stop for ships travelling between Sydney and Norfolk Island as well as for whaling ships. Whale Oil became Australia's most profitable industry until the 1830's when sheep took over that mantle. Unfortunately, the native fauna were easy to catch and most of the native birds were driven to extinction. Pigs were let loose and became feral but became a vital source of meat for the small population at the time. Eventually the whaling industry came to an end and a source of income was found in kentia palm seeds which really boomed in the 1880's.

From 1890 Burns Philp set up a regular shipping line and a sideline in tourism took root. By the early 1930's tourism became the second largest source of external income after sales of kentia palm to Europe.

The first plane arrived on the island in 1931 piloted by Francis Chichester in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth converted to a floatplane. After WW2 in 1947 tourists arrived on a Catalina and then four engine Sandringham flying boats of Ansett Flying Boat Services operating from Rose Bay Sydney began landing on the lagoon.

But this idyllic paradise came to a horrifying end when on the 28th of November 1948 a Catalina of 11 Squadron RAAF stationed in Newcastle crashed carrying a complement of nine with seven dying almost instantaneously. Five of those air personnel are buried in Rookwood.

The Catalina was on a training mission from Rathmines on Lake Macquarie near Newcastle, NSW to seek and shadow HMAS Australia which was acting as an "enemy" vessel. The shadowing was to continue until 30 Squadron Beaufighters arrived to “attack” the "enemy".

The rest of the mission was scheduled to conduct a navigation exercise, which would mean flying from daylight into the night to Lord Howe Island then returning to base at Rathmines.

After the search for the HMAS Australia was completed, the Catalina was flown to Lord Howe as directed before heading west to Rathmines. At about twenty minutes into the flight, a leak from one of the fuel tanks located within the wing behind the engine, was detected. The wing is high mounted on a streamlined pedestal where the engineer is seated. It is believed that the leak started above the engineer's position.

It was decided to attempt a touchdown on the lagoon at Lord Howe Island after dark. The plane was circling the Island at around 7.30pm but unfortunately the ridge below the North Peak was struck at about 182 metres while crossing the island east to west. Two men from a home near the crash site ran to the intensely burning plane where, before the ultimate explosion, they managed to drag two of the crew away. The men had been thrown out on fire, but the flames had been extinguished by their rescuers; one other was also thrown out but could not be saved. The others perished in a fast-igniting inferno; the only consolation was that their deaths came quickly

It was believed that the crew of the Catalina did not put out a radio call for fear of igniting petrol fumes by a chance spark from the radio transmitter. It is more likely that the fumes were ignited by the friction caused by the crash.

The seven men buried side by side at Rookwood are:-

F/Lt. Malcolm D. Smith



F/Lt. James Baker McCoy



F/Lt. William A.M.D. Keller



F/Lt. Alex McKenzie


W/O. Sidney H Bacon



Buried elsewhere -

Pilot 111 S. Piercy

W/O. D.E. Salis

Survivors

F/Lt. B.R. Bradley

W/O. J.D Lea

The deaths of the seven personnel and the loss of the Catalina was the highest loss for the RAAF in peacetime.

When Lord Howe Island Airport was completed in 1974, the seaplanes were eventually replaced with twin engine Dash 8-200 aircraft

Such an idyllic set of islands harbours such a relatively recent tragic aviation event.

The sight of these five headstones above the graves next to one another becomes a memorial for them all. Lest We Forget.


The site of the headstones - author's own collection 

For this blog I have referenced Wikipedia, SMH entry, 1948; Historical information about Lord Howe Island via many google searches.

If you have any comments to make or information to share please do so below or via the the group Facebook page found by searching for

Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

or message me at

lorainepunch@gmail.com

Until next time

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