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Harry’s camel ride through the streets of Alice Springs was hailed as ‘the finest piece of camel riding ever seen,
(though) I never found out just what did happen’.
The next two years saw Harry fly the length and breadth of the Territory on mail runs, supply flights and
medical evacuations. At war’s end, he joined up with his nephew, John Anderson, a motor engineer. Between them,
they bought six three-ton army trucks at the post-war Disposals sales in Darwin and later sold them. The profits set
John up in the motor trade and allowed Harry to stay on in the Top End and purchase two aircraft, a de Havilland
Fox Moth and a Percival Gull.
Harry’s first commercial venture was a fish run from the Daly River to Darwin. Leaving at first light and loaded
with food, spares for trucks, refrigerators or boats, mail and fishing gear, the Fox Moth would fly to the Woolianna
airstrip on the Daly River. There Harry would unload while Tom Vigar, the fisherman, would arrive in his Chev
truck to load the fish. Back in Darwin, Vigar’s partner ‘Brother Woods’ as he was generally known, would take the
fish away to supply the army and RAAF messes.
A part of Harry’s air charter business saw him flying supplies and mail in to the ‘battlers’ working the tin mines at
Mt Finniss and Bamboo Creek among others. Supplies were also flown east from Darwin to the buffalo and crocodile
shooters around Lake Finniss and the Wildman Plains. Flights were also made to the Church Missionary Society
stations at Groote Eylandt, Rose River and Roper River, and to the Methodist Overseas Missions’ establishments
at Croker, Elcho and Goulburn Islands and at Yirrkala in far east Arnhem Land. Missions at Nguiu on Bathurst
Island, Port Keats and Daly River were also frequent stops for Harry in his extensive travelling throughout the
Top End. Bill Harney, the right hand man for the Director of Native Affairs, Vin White, and Ted Evans were
frequent passengers as they roamed far and wide in their efforts to stabilise the Aboriginal population following
extensive dislocation during the war years.
The year 1948 proved to be a busy one for Harry as he decided to accompany a friend, Ken Hewitt, on a voyage
to deliver an ex-disposals RAAF bomb scow to the Roper River. The sea voyage over some 1 200 kilometres
proved an eventful one. The trip aboard the seven metre flat-bottomed scow saw the crew endure varying weather
and sea conditions as they passed by the coast. Stopping at Cape Don, Port Essington, Goulburn Island (where they
took aboard Jacky Marloo, a Cape Stewart Aborigine who had finished his service with the RAAF), Cape Stewart,
Elcho Island, Yirrkala, Trial Bay, Groote Eylandt and Rose River, they pushed on to their destination, the Church
Missionary Society’s mission on the north bank of the Roper River.
Returning to Darwin, and flying, Harry was engaged to fly supplies from Darwin to Oenpelli for the members
of the Charles P Mountford Australian-American Scientific Expedition. Comprising Americans Charles Setzler,
an anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institute, Bob Millar, an ichthyologist, and Dave Duigan, an ornithologist
under Mountford’s leadership they had started the expedition at Groote Eylandt. Working through Arnhem Land
the scientists travelled back to Oenpelli. The expedition was recorded by well-known Life magazine photographer
Howell Walker; Bill Harney had provided technical advice.
Later that year Harry was engaged to fly a Department of Information camera team to Timber Creek for a series
of documentary features on aspects of life in the Territory. Harry also met up with many of the former well known
policemen of the Territory including Tas Fitzer, Ted Morey, Sandy McNab and others. Often during his trips,
Harry was requested to bring in sick or injured people from remote stations to hospital. He sold his Percival Gull
and purchased a Tiger Moth, retaining the Fox Moth, which could accommodate a stretcher. Eventually, in late
1948 he sold his aircraft and joined the Commonwealth Department of Health, Northern Territory Aerial Medical
Service (NTAMS) flying DH Dragon aircraft on medical flights from Darwin and working with noted identities
‘Doc’ Fenton, Dr Bruce Cumpston, policeman Jim Mannion, Mick Nudl and Jack Slade, the Chief Pilot at
NTAMS.
In July 1949, Harry was asked to fly to Alice Springs where he flew Syd Turnbull, a senior dental officer,
through central Australia on a comprehensive dental survey of communities there. Acting as pilot, mechanic and
nurse, Harry witnessed the extractions of some 1 100 teeth over a fortnight, along with many hundreds of fillings
using amalgam mixed by himself. Following this Harry was involved in medical flights covering thousands of
kilometres throughout the Top End and as far south as Tennant Creek. In late 1949 and into 1950 Harry flew with
Dr Bertram Welton, a new arrival from Cheshire in England. From July 1951, he commenced deployments to
Alice Springs each six weeks and from 1 July 1952, Harry and his DH Dragon VH-ASL were based permanently
at the RAAF aerodrome south of town, the ‘Seven-Mile’, which was also being used by the airlines.
On 1 March 1952, Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) took over the operations of NTAMS aircraft on behalf
of the Department of Health, and both Captains Slade and Moss became TAA employees. The year 1952 also
saw the purchase of three DH (Australia) Drover aircraft. Equipped with three Gipsy Major engines they were
a considerable improvement on the older Dragons. Harry was sent to the Bankstown base of de Havillands’ for
refresher training, accompanied by his second wife, Eleanor, a trained nurse.
In 1957, NTAMS replaced its Drovers with DH Dove aircraft, the last, VH-DHK going to Alice Springs with
Harry Moss in late 1961.
Some months later Harry was forced to consider his future. He would turn 55 years old on 21 March 1962 and
would be automatically retired. He recalled that, ‘Eleanor and I sadly decided to shake the dust, and I mean dust, of
the centre off our feet. We disposed of most of our possessions, packed the rest in our utility, and loaded it on a flat
top to come south on the Ghan’. Travelling to Port Augusta the couple unloaded their Holden utility and travelled
via the Eyre Peninsula, Port Lincoln and Coffin Bay before working across to Sydney.
Harry’s retirement brought many messages and letters of appreciation, including the award of a Membership
of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his 10 years’ work at Alice Springs. Ironically, he had to be replaced