Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white clip shows Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith (played by actor Ron Randell) seeking support and approval to enter the 1919 inaugural England to Australia air race. In the first scene, he secures the support of the head of the British Blackburn Aeroplane and Motor Company. The clip then cuts to a newspaper report that Australian prime minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes will interview all prospective race entrants. In the final scenes Kingsford Smith is shown meeting Hughes where he is told that he lacks the navigational skills to enter the race.

Educational value points

• Charles Kingsford Smith (1897–1935), who was affectionately known as ‘Smithy’, was an Australian aviator who broke many aviation records; he may well have been the greatest Australian aviation record breaker. A decorated fighter pilot in the First World War, Kingsford Smith was passionate about flying and his record-breaking flights captured the public’s imagination. He was knighted in 1932 for services to aviation.

• As Billy Hughes (played by himself) predicts in this clip, Kingsford Smith made his mark as an aviator, but not until June 1928 when he and co-pilot Charles Ulm with navigator Harry Lyon and radio operator James Warner made the first trans-Pacific flight, flying from California to Brisbane in less than 84 hours flying time. In 1930 he became the first aviator to fly around the world and also won the England to Australia air race. In 1934 he made the first east–west crossing of the Pacific.

• In 1919 the Australian Government offered a prize of £10,000, equivalent to about half a million dollars in 2007, to the first Australian to fly a British aircraft from England to Australia in less than 30 consecutive days. The England to Australia air race was an initiative of the then prime minister Billy Hughes, who felt aviation and air transport were the keys to the nation’s commercial development.

• Hughes’s decision to vet entrants in the air race reflects the dangers associated with long-distance aviation at the time. Most of the air routes across oceans were uncharted, aircraft and navigational equipment were primitive and aviators often pushed themselves and their planes to the limits of endurance. In the clip, Hughes uses these arguments to reject Kingsford Smith’s application. Captain Ross Smith and Lieutenant Keith Smith from South Australia won the race in 27 days, 20 hours.

• Kingsford Smith was just one of a number of celebrated Australian pioneer aviators. The predominance of Australians in the early days of aviation reflected the nation’s geographic isolation from Europe and the USA and the determination of these ambitious and adventurous aviators to overcome the ‘tyranny of distance’. Other famous Australian flyers included Bert Hinkler, Ross and Keith Smith, Norman Brearley, Hudson Fysh (the co-founder of Qantas) and Charles Ulm.

• William Morris (Billy) Hughes (1862–1952) was prime minister between 1915 and 1923, and spent nearly 52 years in federal Parliament, making him the longest serving member of the House of Representatives. During a colourful career Hughes represented four different parties. He was a generally popular wartime leader, whose championing of the troops earned him the nickname ‘the little digger’. His support for conscription however led to bitter division in the Australian Labor Party.

• Ronald Egan Randell (1918–2005) starred as the aviator hero Charles Kingsford Smith in Smithy. Randell was born in Sydney, NSW, and as a teenager began his career in radio and stage work. Smithy launched Randell into a career in Hollywood in films such as Kiss Me Kate (1953), King of Kings (1961) and The Longest Day (1962), as well as acting in Broadway productions and on television.

• Smithy was the last full-length feature directed by Ken G Hall, a leading Australian filmmaker who led Cinesound Productions from 1931 to 1956. He achieved success in the 1930s with a series of comedies based on author Steele Rudd’s characters Dad and Dave and with films such as The Silence of Dean Maitland (1934) and Tall Timbers (1937). After Smithy, he focused on making documentaries and in 1957 became chief executive of TCN 9, Australia’s first television station.

Charles Kingsford Smith appeals to a representative of the Blackburn Aviation Co for backing. They are talking at a large desk.
Charles Kingsford Smith It’s a chance to prove that air travel over oceans is practical. It’s the beginning of a new age – the age of flight. Flying’s young now, but it’s going to grow. And I want to grow with it.
Man And what made you think I’d be so foolish as to back you?
Mr Smith Well, you’re progressive. And besides, there’s worldwide publicity. New markets for your machine, and … and a lot more.
Man Well, if I do this – mind you, I’m not saying I will – but if I do it, it won’t just be for those things. You see, Mr Smith, I too believe in the future of aviation. It’s my business to believe it. Of course, you’ve planned the route you intend to fly?
Mr Smith Oh, yes, sir. May I show you on the map, sir?
Mr Hughes Oh, certainly. Just this way.

A newspaper headline declares that Kingsford Smith is backed by Blackburn in the air race to Australia. The by-line notes that the Australian prime minister, Mr WM Hughes, will personally interview all race entrants. Mr Smith attends at the Savoy Hotel for his appointment with Mr Hughes.
Mr WM Hughes Come in, come in.
Bellboy Gentleman to see you, sir.
Mr Hughes Come in. How do you do?
Mr Smith How do you do, sir.
Mr Hughes I understand you’re Lieutenant Kingsford Smith?
Mr Smith That’s right, sir.
Mr Hughes Take a seat. Have a cigarette, will you?
Mr Smith No thank you, sir.
Mr Hughes No? I understand you want to have a shot at this flight to Australia.
Mr Smith Yes, Mr Hughes. It looks as if Blackburn will let us have a machine.
Mr Hughes What experience have you had in long-distance flying?
Mr Smith Well, over the Hun lines and back every day.
Mr Hughes Well, you don’t call that long-distance flying, surely? The flight to Australia is a horse of a very different colour. I am told, on the best of authority, that neither you nor your co-pilot know anything at all about navigation.
Mr Smith We don’t have to, sir. We have maps.
Mr Hughes What kind of maps?
Mr Smith Well, railway maps are the only ones available. We’ll get through on those, sir.
Mr Hughes You will, eh? To the best of my knowledge, there are no railways running between India and Australia. What are you going to do with these railway maps of yours when you get over the sea?
Mr Smith You wouldn’t stop us, sir?
Mr Hughes Yes, my boy, I would. You may get a good machine. But that’s not enough. I have a great responsibility to your parents, and to the people of Australia. I can’t just let you go out and commit suicide. That’s what you’ll be doing.
Mr Smith But you can’t stop us now, sir! We’ll get through somehow.
Mr Hughes I am sorry. I’m really sorry, Smith, you know. I hate doing this to you, boy. But flying to Australia, 12,000 miles, is not like flying over the Hun lines, as you call it. Your spirit’s alright, but your organisation is not! Goodbye, my boy. Someday when you’ve accomplished something really big in flying, as I believe you will, you’ll realise that I probably saved your life.