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for a couple of years while it healed, even as be tended the famous South Australian police ‘greys’ at the stables,
Thebarton Police Barracks, Adelaide—his place of residence more than thirty years before.
He resigned his position as stable master to break-in for trainer Bart Cummings such young thoroughbreds as
Light Fingers, Galillee and Ziema, all champions. At the age of seventy-seven his doctor suggested nicely that it
was about time he acted his age and left colt-breaking to the younger ones. Morey reluctantly agreed.
Thereafter, until the last months of his life, Morey was a midday bank-guard at a Glenelg bank. He and his wife
had not long returned from a stay with their youngest daughter and her husband in New York and Connecticut when
Morey had a fall at Glenelg. Within days, he suffered massive chest pains, beginning late one night. Twenty-seven
hours later, an aortic aneurism was diagnosed. He was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for emergency surgery,
but died just as daylight was breaking, without recovering consciousness, on 24 April 1982 aged 80 years.
He was cremated at Centennial Park Crematorium with Church of Christ rites.
His name is perpetuated in a street in the township of Jabiru, and another thoroughfare commemorated him at
Palmerston.
V Hall, Outback Policeman, 1970; E H Morey records, diaries and manuscripts, held by Mrs K A Morey and Mr P Morey.
PERRY MOREY, Vol 1.
MOSS, HARRY (1907–1990), aviator, was born at Geelong, Victoria, on 21 March 1907. Educated in Geelong
and later in Melbourne, he gained work in a private company and was able to save enough for a motorcycle, which
gave him the independence he would retain for the rest of his life.
Harry’s introduction to aviation was on 26 December 1930. He had ridden to Inverloch a popular resort some
150 kilometres south west of Melbourne, where he saw a biplane on the beach. Paying the 10 Shillings fee to
pilot Horrie Beeston, he enjoyed a brief flight aboard the Sports Farman aeroplane, marking down in his mind
that he ‘would like to command such an aerial laundry basket’, referring to the structure of the Anzani powered
aeroplane.
By the mid-1930s, Harry was working at the Ford Motor Company plant at Geelong. Weekends were spent,
as the weather allowed, at the town common to watch the joyriding aeroplanes and gliders. He met up with
Percy Pratt and his brother Charlie and joined the Geelong Flying School. Percy was a gliding specialist and the
brothers ran the school with two de Havilland Gipsy Moths. Urged on by Charlie, Harry studied the theory and
practice of aeronautical engineering and in 1936 was issued Aircraft Engineer Licence No 865, after having passed
the engines and airframes exams by the Civil Air Board in Melbourne.
In 1938, the Pratt brothers bought out Matthews Aviation and moved the business to Essendon aerodrome
with Harry joining them as engineer. Harry was paid seven Pounds and seven Shillings on joining the company
at a time when the basic wage was three Pounds and three Shillings. Top engineers were being paid around
five Pounds per week and Harry was the subject of some envy among the engineering fraternity. In his spare
time, Harry studied flying and gained his private pilot’s licence in 1938, but maintained a desire to become a
commercial pilot. Aviatrix Gert Mackenzie took him under her wing teaching him navigation and passing on
her considerable experience. After intensive study, Harry passed the commercial theory exams before the flying
tests under Arthur Affleck, a former pilot with the fledgling Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services
(QANTAS) and by 1941 the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) examiner.
Harry joined DCA in late 1941, working as an aircraft mechanic on a variety of aircraft. In late 1942, DCA was
authorised to ferry aircraft to New Guinea for use on the rough, high altitude airstrips in evacuating the wounded
to Port Moresby, flying mostly from Myola some 1 700 metres up in the Owen Stanleys. Arthur Affleck test flew a
de Havilland DH 50 in preparation for a ferry trip on 19 November 1942. A long-range fuel tank was installed and
on 23 November Affleck, with Harry Moss accompanying him as mechanic, set out for Port Moresby. After an
eventful journey which including tipping the DH 50 on its nose on the beach at Kareema near Moresby, the aeroplane
was delivered to Squadron Leader Jerry Pentland, a pre-war planter at Lae, who was then commanding Number
One Rescue and Communication Flight, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Returning to Melbourne Harry was tasked with returning a Northrop Delta aeroplane to service after its use in
the Ellsworth Expedition to the Antarctic. He was then tasked with bringing a de Havilland DH 75 Hawk back to
service before its transfer to Eddie Connellan and his Connellan Airways in Alice Springs.
Following an engine overhaul and major servicing the Hawk was test flown and the required DCA paperwork
completed. In May 1943, Harry took off from Essendon with his Irish Setter dog ‘Paddy’, heading for Adelaide
on the first leg of the journey to Alice Springs. From Adelaide Harry flew along the railway line north to Farina,
then northwest to Oodnadatta across the southern end of Lake Eyre and on until spotting the MacDonnell Rangers.
Harry landed the Hawk at Connellan’s base at the old Townsite Aerodrome in Alice Springs after a 2, 300-kilometre
journey from Melbourne. He stayed on with Connellan, on leave from DCA, taking over from Eddie’s usual
engineer, Jack Pennington. Connellan and Harry were the flying staff at the time, flying two Percival Gull aircraft
on the long mail runs through the Territory, extending as far as Wyndham on the north west coast of Western
Australia. Connellan was also contracted to the Royal Flying Doctor Service at the Alice Springs base, monitoring
some 100 outpost radio sets.
Harry’s introduction to medical flights was in late 1943, with a flight to Rose Hill Station. He flew Dr Bob Elix
the 400 kilometres from Alice Springs across the South Australian border to tend the station owner’s wife Mrs Fuller.
After an eventful trip, which included having to change spark plugs at the station and at Kulgera, Mrs Fuller was
transferred to hospital where she was relieved of her appendix.
Christmas 1943 saw Harry dressed as Santa Claus to attend the Country Women’s Association children’s party.
After some initial problems associated with his whiskers slipping over his eyes and some alarm for the toys,