Lot 1617

Description

Aircraft fuel tank from the crashed Southern Cloud, a metal tank (approx 50x35x18cm) with inlet and outlet pipes. Fine.

The tank is attributed to the Southern Cloud, an Avro 618 Ten three-engine aircraft, registered number VH-UMF, which was flying daily air services between Australia's capital cities for Australian National Airways. The aircraft disappeared on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne on 21 March 1931 while flying under extremely hazardous weather conditions. The search for the missing aircraft lasted for 18 days and one of the searchers was airline co-owner (with Charles Ulm) Charles Kingsford Smith. This was Australia's first major airline disaster and resulted in eight fatalities and this and another crash later in the same year culminated in the closure of Australian National Airways in that year.



The crash site remained a mystery for 27 years until a worker on the Snowy Mountains Scheme discovered the wreckage by accident on 26 October 1958 in heavily wooded, mountainous terrain about 25km off its original course. Artefacts from the wreckage are held by various museums including the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, The National Museum of Australia in Canberra, ACT and the Tumbarumba Visitor Information Centre which is 30km north of the Southern Cloud Memorial Scenic Lookout at Tumbarumba, NSW. There is also a Southern Cross Memorial Park at Cooma, NSW.