Kookaburra, the most compelling story in Australia’s aviation history

The circumstances surrounding the loss of the aeroplane Kookaburra and the deaths of the two aviators, Anderson and Hitchcock, in the Tanami Desert in 1929, received enormous publicity which set off a spate of rumours, hysteria and emotion.

The story has been resurrected frequently in published articles, with many inaccuracies over the past 50 years.

During the last 10 years an interest in relocating the remains of the aircraft has led to numerous search expeditions, some inspired by genuine historical interest and others by wild stories, reminiscent of ‘Lasseter’s Reef’, that a member of the 1929 truck party which recovered the bodies, had found gold-bearing rock nearby.

It remained for a young aviation enthusiast and self-made electronics millionaire, Dick Smith, to finally locate the skeletal remains of the Kookaburra in 1978, ravaged by the passing 49 years and periodic bush-fires.