1941 - 1950 page 7

February 1948

September 22 1948

At 12.45 Shute departs for Australia in Item Willie in the company of James Riddell who later writes "Flight of Fancy" about the trip. Shute has only 230 hours of solo flying experience spread over about 25 years when they take off for the journey. He has never before flown longer than 2 hours at a stretch but he has spent the previous year meticulously planning the trip.

This uncaptioned photo could be any part of Shute and Riddell's flights to or from Australia. As the photo comes from Portsmouth Library I like to think it is their departure from the UK but an English Shutist suggests that the sloppy looking foreground man must be an Australian as English people are always good looking and well dressed. It is probably Shute who is visible in the cockpit. Portsmouth Library / Norman Pasley

Shute stayed here in 1948. Once the only fully air conditioned building in Bangkok and a prestige hotel, it still exists but with reduced status and is now called The New Trocadero Hotel. (Photo: Bruce Clark)

Hans and Pam Snellman in 2001. In 1948 they were living in Bali and assisted Shute and James Riddell when they passed through. Shute later arranged to send Pam books and Riddell thanked them handsomely in "Flight of Fancy". When Hans and Pam later moved to Australia they continued their friendship with the Shute family. (Photo: RM 2001)

November 26 1948

Shute and Riddell arrive in Darwin and travels across North East Australia.

December 14 1948

Not liking the outback, James Riddell travels from Cairns to Sydney while Shute tours the outback in Item Willie.

December 1948. Shute and Reg McAuliffe. The "No Smoking Aircraft Refuelling" sign behind them indicates this must be the VIP Lounge at an outback landing strip.
It's a shame we have no information on the aboriginals in the photos. (Photo: Courtesy of The Clarke Family 2007)

December 16 1948

Shute, in the company of Insurance salesman Reg McAuliffe, visits Burketown which, along with the other towns in the area, inspires the fictional town of Willstown in A Town Like Alice. Burke and Wills were explorers as famous in Australia as Lewis and Clarke or Stanley and Livingston and so the real town name of Burketown is reflected by Shute's fictional town name of Willstown. Shute visited Burketown in 1948 and found it a desolate place with a population of 59 and no real hope of progress. This photo shows bustling Burketown's busy downtown area at rush hour in 1933. Shute suggests it was less hectic in 1948. The Commonwealth Hotel is on the right with the Police Station, Post Office and Queensland National Bank in the background. (Reproduced with the kind permission of The John Oxley Library. Photo #45630, X62/8226)

December 16 1948 (?) at Augustus Downs Station (?)
Based on The Flight Log I think this is Augustus Downs.
The man I assume is Policeman Fred Dawnbush (?) stands in the cockpit.
L to R. Mrs Nissen (?) with the brilliant smile, Shute, Mr Nissen (?), Reg McAuliffe. I really like this photo. The woman looks like the salt of the earth and has a fabulous smile. This is a real moment in their lives captured forever.
Note that the airstrip is bare with no grass whereas the previous photo has long grass.
Therefore I suspect that, because of the presence of the person I think is Fred Dawnbush, the photo was taken at another location. Therefore I am guessing this is Augustus Downs. The manager of Augustus Downs was Mr Nissen. The Flight Log also infers he has a wife.
(Photo: Courtesy of The Clarke Family 2007

December 17 1948

Shute meets Jimmie "Ringer" Edwards at Glenmore Station in Queensland. Later Edwards inspires Joe Harman in "A Town Like Alice".

The rugged and handsome Jimmie "Ringer" Edwards (1913-2000) during World War 2 in a photo entitled "Me and a handful of beer money". Shute met Jimmie in Northern Australia on December 17 1948 at Glenmore Station about 15 miles from Normanton and based much of the character of Joe Harman in "A Town Like Alice" on him. Jimmie was effectively crucified by the Japanese for 63 hours as punishment but survived. The other two prisoners with him died. On another occasion he was sentenced to death but released when his last meal request of beer and chicken was unobtainable. All this made its way into "Alice".

December 18 1948
The Flight Log and a label on the photo show that this is Glenore Station, 15 miles from Normanton. Jimmie Edwards managed Glenore Station.
By his hat we know that Shute is at the centre. To Shute's left is Jimmie Edwards and a naked Tom Newman, who was a policeman who came on the trip by car from Normanton is to the right.
On this day Shute, Jimmie Edwards and Tom Newman dragged the river for alligators with a long net.
Jimmie Edwards, walking in the river, actually trod on an alligator but the alligator, a less aggressive fresh water crocodile, was merely frightened and got away.
(Photo: Courtesy of The Clarke Family 2007)

December 19 1948. The Flight Log shows that this is Dunbar Homestead about 180m NE of Normanton.
When Shute and company arrive in the morning, all the male inhabitants of the station are still drunk from the night before.
Shute wrote that they had "slept where they fell the night before, and had been waked by the sound of the aircraft. They had smashed all their glasses, so they plied us with drinks in tea cups."
However Shute is very impressed with the management of the property and so gives them full marks for their work when they are sober.
You can see a fair facsimile of Joe Harman's house in the background with its tin roof and wide verandahs. Shute said it was a good house with a garden and many flowering trees.
I suspect that the rumpled blinds in the background were only disturbed in the previous night's drunken revels.
It is reasonable to assume that this is the first of several hard drinking groups that Shute encountered that eventually became the Regans in Beyond the Black Stump.
From Shute's description, it is possible that the man on Shute's right is Tunny who was an excellent saddle maker and who had not left the station for 10 years because of his bad behaviour in town. Tunny is a likely inspiration for character of The Judge in Beyond The Black Stump who likewise never left the station.
Dr Marcus Clarke's daughter Bev recalls: I remember Dad telling a story about arriving at one homestead about 9am and everyone there was already drinking or drunk. He said they first offered Nevil an ashtray to drink from.
(Photo: Courtesy of The Clarke Family 2007)

December 15 1948 (?)
Policeman Fred Dawnbush (?) and Dr Marcus Clarke.
The Flight Log shows that on December 15 1948 Shute intentionally ground looped to stop when doing a high-speed unintended downwind landing at Normanton because, on approach, the white windsocks were invisible from the air against the light earth.
Assuming it is Shute under the wing, he might well be checking the undercarriage here after that event.
Accompanying him on the flight next day was Policeman Fred Dawnbush so, assuming Dawnbush might have also met him on his arrival in Normanton on December 15th, then that is probably Fred Dawnbush. Marcus Clarke was a 35-year-old doctor based in Cairns. In 1948 Shute volunteered to fly Dr Marcus Clarke on his rounds of the outback stations in the Gulf Country.
It was on these flights that Shute saw the towns that inspired Willstown in A Town Like Alice, and where he met Jimmie Ringer Edwards who was the prototype for Joe Harman.
Recently an autographed copy of The Legacy came up for sale on Ebay.com.au . It has a personal inscription from Nevil Shute to Marcus Clarke "With gratitude for help in getting out this book". (Photo: Courtesy of The Clarke Family 2007)