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Australian Inland Mission, Correspondence Files, MS 5574, Box 108, National Library of Australia; Northern Territory Archives Service,
NTRS 226 TS 497, interview with J Fuller, Adelaide 1987; personal conversations and correspondence with author; L A Riddett, Kine, Kin
and Country, 1990.
LYN A RIDDETT, Vol 3.
FYSH, (Sir) (WILMOT) HUDSON (1895–1974), jackeroo, soldier, aviator and businessman, was born in
Launceston, Tasmania, on 7 January 1895 to Frederick Fysh and his wife Mary, nee Reed, one of five children.
While still young, his parents separated. Fysh went to live with his father on a farm but remained deeply attached
to his imperious and strong willed mother. The break up of the marriage had a traumatic effect on him. He was
painfully shy and suffered from severe bouts of asthma. Having run away from his father’s farm on several
occasions, he was finally allowed to live with his mother near Launceston. At the age of 15 he was sent to Geelong
Church of England Grammar School in Victoria as a boarder. Separated from the stress of his family situation, his
health improved. He had, however, lost out on too much schooling to catch up with the other students.
After leaving school, he worked as a jackeroo and studied wool classing at Geelong. While there, he saw his
first aeroplane, piloted by the French aviator Maurice Guiteaux. For much of his life Fysh had a recurring dream
in which he flew from the top of the stairs of his childhood home, down through the house and out into the garden.
The sensation was never one of effortless soaring, but always that of striving desperately to stay aloft.
He served in the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War, first in the Light Horse in Egypt and
Gallipoli and later as an observer and pilot in the Australian Flying Corps. Promoted to Lieutenant, he was also
awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). While in the Flying Corps he flew many missions with the highly
decorated Irish–Australian pilot Paul ‘Ginty’ McGinnes.
They kept in contact after the war and when the Australian government offered a purse of 10 000 Pounds for
the first Australian air crew to fly from England to Australia before the end of 1919, they decided to go for the
prize. Sir Samuel McCaughey agreed to sponsor the venture, and along with Arthur Baird as engineer, preparations
were made to make the sea voyage to England to purchase an aircraft. Unfortunately, McCaughey died shortly
afterwards, leaving no time to find an alternate sponsor. The Chief of the Australian General Staff, Major General
James Legge, who had been given the task of selecting the Australian end of the race’s route and landing strips,
asked Fysh and McGinnes to undertake the necessary survey. Their journey from Longreach in Queensland to
Darwin in the Northern Territory was undertaken in a Model T Ford. It was the first motor vehicle to traverse the
Gulf of Carpentaria route. Fysh remained in Darwin for nine months. He had an airstrip cleared at Fannie Bay for
a cost of 700 Pounds. On 10 December 1919 a Vickers Vimy aircraft flown by the brothers Ross and Keith Smith
landed after their flight from England and won the race prize. The landing strip can still be seen in Darwin. Now a
wide tree lined street in a residential area, it is called Ross Smith Avenue. Leading off it is Hudson Fysh Drive.
The dynamic and voluble McGinnes in the meantime had been finding backers for the dream of an air service
in the remote north of Australia. In August 1920, with the backing of graziers Fergus McMaster, Alan Campbell
and Ainslie Templeton, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (QANTAS, later Qantas) was
registered. Fysh became its Managing Director in 1923, remaining a regular pilot until 1930. The company set
up headquarters in Longreach, Queensland. During the early days finance was always a problem and while the
Longreach to Cloncurry route and the air ambulance service were being established, joy flights and ‘barn storming’
were essential to provide a regular income. On 23 December 1924 Fysh married Eleanor (Nell) Elizabeth Dove in
Sydney. The couple lived in Longreach and had a son and a daughter.
In April 1931 Fysh flew the Brisbane to Darwin section in an experimental air mail service between Australia and
England. In 1934 Qantas Empire Airways (QEA) was formed with Fysh as Managing Director. The first passenger
flight connecting Australia with the outside world left Brisbane on 10 December 1934. In 1938 flying boats were
introduced on overseas services, as were full catering services and airline stewards. The QEA headquarters moved
to Sydney. Darwin remained a major port of call in the new airline’s network of routes.
After service in the Royal Australian Air Force during the Second World War, during which QEA equipment
was used for military purposes, Fysh returned to the airline as Managing Director, a post he retained after the
Commonwealth government purchased the entire company in 1947. He retired as Managing Director in 1955 but
stayed on as Chairman until forced to step down in 1966. By then he had been involved with the company for
43 years, seeing it grow from two aircraft in north Australia to a huge corporation which also included hotel and
tourism ventures. He had been appointed Knight of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1951.
Much of his retirement was spent in Sydney. He wrote a three-volume history of Qantas, which was published
between 1965 and 1970. An earlier work, Taming the North, was published in 1933. Sir Hudson Fysh died of
cancer on 5 April 1974.
W H Fysh, Qantas Rising, 1965; Qantas at War, 1968; Wings to the World, 1970; T Hall, Flying High, 1979.
EVE GIBSON, Vol 2.