G-AUDK
Bristol Tourer
(c/n 6110)
"Watch your step,
Madam" - or "Mind the Gap", 1920s style. I am not sure if
this Bristol,
and the machine in the
background, (Bristol Tourer Coupe G-AUDJ) were operating for WA
Airways Ltd, or for Charles
Kingsford Smith's Interstate Flying Services when this shot was
taken. The image
comes from The A J Jackson Collection at Brooklands Museum, and depicts
Mrs. J.W. Marshall alighting at
Sydney having been flown from Perth by the indubitable C. Kingsford
Smith. Note
the neat stitching at the rear of the
fuselage. Yes, seamstresses were employed in
aircraft factories in those
days. The lower blurry image is from the C.H. Barnes
collection, whilst
the scratchy image following
that (# 3) is from the Geoff Goodall collection. G-AUDK
went to
New Guinea in 1927 and crashed
there during a landing at Lae in
February, 1928. Photo No. 4
came from the Perth
Western Mail for 7 July 1927 and the caption read: 'Flying
around Australia
on a commercial
venture for Bond and Co. Ltd.
Sydney, Mr. Keith V. Anderson passed through
Perth last weekend.
Our photograph depicts the
departure from Maylands Aerodrome. Insert:
Mr. K.V.
Anderson.'. Finally the photo at the foot of the page was taken
by Ellis Trautman and
depicts a replica of G-AUDK which
now hangs in the Museum in Geraldton, WA., in commem-
oration of the real G-AUDK's
flying the inaugural service from that community to Perth, on Monday
5th
December 1921. This replica was also used in the
movie "A Thousand Skies".