Maurice Guillaux and Australia's first official airmail flight 1914

Maurice Guillaux: 50th Anniversary 1964 | Postcards & Philatelics 1913+ | Flying into Harden 1914 | First Australian Aerial Mail 1914 | Australia - photographs & film 1914 |

Maurice Guillaux at Melbourne Showground, 16 July 1914, being handed mail by the Acting Postmaster General of Australia.

1. Introduction

Maurice Guillaux completed the first official aerial mail (airmail) flight in Australia from Melbourne to Sydney – a distance of 930 kilometres - between Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 July 1914. This landmark feat is noted in the Nelson Eustis definitive The Australian Air Mail Catalogue, first published in 1937 (Eustis 1965, 1984). Guillaux was supported in this venture by the the Commonwealth Postmaster General (PMG) Department, precedent to the modern day Australia Post. In this feat, Guillaux carried freight and mail between the two cities solo aboard his Blériot XI monoplane. His route and approximate arrival and departure / takeoff and landing times were as follows (Eustis 1984):

* Thursday 16 July

9.12am - departs Melbourne

9.54am - arrives at Seymour (travels 61 miles in 42 minutes)

10.25am - departs Seymour (31 minutes rest/refuel)

11.40am - arrives at Wangaratta (travels 84 miles in 1 hour 15 minutes)

12.15pm - departs Wangaratta (35 minutes rest/refuel)

12.50pm - arrives at Albury (travels 45 miles in 35 minutes)

1.35pm - departs Albury (55 minutes rest/refuel)

2.45pm - arrives at Wagga Wagga (travels 79 miles in 1 hour 10 minutes)

3.30pm - departs Wagga Wagga (40 minutes rest/refuel)

3.45pm - flies over Junee

4.06pm - arrives at Harden (travels 84 miles in 1 hour 36 minutes);

c.5pm - departs Harden; turns around at Binalong due to bad weather and returns to Harden where he stays overnight

* Friday 17 July

During the day he gives flying displays and takes some residents up in the plane

2pm - departs Harden; turns around at Galong and returns to Harden due to bad weather, where he stays overnight

* Saturday 18 July

7.15am - departs Harden

9.15am - arrives at Goulburn (travels 94 miles in 2 hours). This was the  longest and most difficult leg of the whole flight

11.05 am - departs Goulburn (1 hour 50 minutes rest/refuel)

12.35pm - arrives at Liverpool (travels 113 miles in 1 hour 30 minutes)

2.05pm - departs Liverpool (1 hour 30 minutes rest / lunch / refuel)

2.50pm - arrives at Moore Park, Sydney (travels 22 miles in 45 minutes)

Total travel time: 9 hours 33 minutes [8 hours 2 minutes actual overhead time, as in some instances, upon arrival, he remained in the air and gave flying displays].

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2. The claim that Guillaux's official air mail flight was not the first in Australia

In the Australian Stamps Professional magazine of May/June 2022, Ron Lee published an article entitled The myth that Guillaux carried the first airmail in Australia. Therein, despite the misleading title of the article, he argued that the first 'official' air mail flight in Australia took place between Lismore and Tenterfield in New South Wales on 9 June 1920, six years after Guillaux's. Lee's article is wrong, containing errors of historical fact and misplaced assumptions on the part of that author. Within the Eustis air mail catalogue cited above there are, for example, 37 items listed prior to the Lismore - Tenterfield flight, with some 14 of those having an official status. A rebuttal of Lee's article is presented below.

Lee opens his argument against Guillaux's achievement by first of all belittling the aviator's monoplane, calling it a ‘fragile, primitive and unreliable aircraft.’ In actual fact, the Blériot XI monoplane possessed a 50 horsepower Gnome engine and 55 litre fuel tank giving it a range of approximately two hours and a top speed around the 120mph mark. Far from being the aircraft that Lee describes, the Blériot XI was recognised at the time, and subsequently, for its notable achievements in early aviation history, including the first flight across the English Channel in 1909, breaking the flight airspeed record the following year, and military use during World War I (Wikipedia 2022). The monoplane was especially suited for stunt work, and it was for this reason the Guillaux selected it for his performances in Egypt and Australia during 1914. The lightness of the plane, its body strength, and the powerful motor allowed this talented aviator to do feats of flying such as loop the loop and flutter. At the time it was far from being seen as a ‘fragile, primitive and unreliable aircraft,’ though it is in comparison with present day aircraft.

Lee goes on to state that in regards to Guillaux’s Australian aerial mail flight during 1914, ‘No one in the world had made a journey by air over such a long distance’. In fact, just the previous year Guillaux had won the Pommery Cup by flying 1,229 kilometres in a single day - on 29 April 1913 - between Biarritz and Kollum. This was approximately 300 kilometres further than the 930 kilometre flight from Melbourne to Sydney in July 1914.

Numerous contemporary Australian newspaper reports of the proposed Melbourne to Sydney flight refer to it being the ‘first aerial mail’ in Australia (e.g. Daily Advertiser, Wagga Wagga, 4 July 1914). As a result, there was much excitement and anticipation regarding the French aviator’s departure from the Melbourne Agricultural Grounds at 9.12am on Thursday, 16 July 1914, with numerous cameras recording the event and a crowd gathered, of both local officials and supporters.

Lee goes on to state, once again incorrectly, that Guillaux only carried souvenir postcards and ‘no mail’, arguing that the 1785 postcards could not be classified as 'mail' as they derived from a commercial promotion. This is a strange statement, as much of the philatelic material generated in Australia prior to the 1970s, if not all, was of a commercial, non-PMG or Australia Post origin, apart from Specimen sets of stamps. The present author has never before heard the argument put that material originating from a commercial source cannot be declared official mail, even if it is accepted and processed by the post office in the same manner as every other type of mail. The definition of 'official mail' is contingent upon its passage through the official mail system, not according to the content or origin of the material.

Further supporting the official mail aspect of the flight, the French aviator carried not only the aforementioned postcards, but also letters - at least four - all of which were posted normally, with stamps and official postmarks. A special stamp was also used by the promoters. Freight such as a box of OT Cordial was also carried, though this was likely only on behalf of his sponsors and not necessarily put through the postal system.

The postcards and letters were handled by the post office at both ends of the journey - Melbourne and Sydney. They were stamped with a purple oval stamp in Melbourne, dated 16 July 1914, and a black circular date stamp in Sydney, dated 18 July 14. The 1d red Kangaroo stamp was generally used, though postcards with additional stamps are also known. A fake envelope with four 1d red King George V stamps is known, but this is a forgery as that stamp was not issued until 1918.

In Melbourne, the bag of mail was handed to the pilot by the Acting Postmaster General W.B. Crosby, as can be seen in the photograph at the head of this article. It was carried by the aviator in an official mail bag and received in Sydney by a senior member of the PMG Department and then delivered to the General Post Office (GPO) for dispersal and delivery. Guillaux was also met at Sydney by the Governor General, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, highlighting the official and pioneering nature of his flight.

To define the above outlined process as anything other than the dispatch and delivery of ‘official mail’, as Lee seeks to do, is neither correct nor convincing. For example, as the Goulburn Evening Penny Post of Saturday, 18 July 1914 reported:

In addition to the postcards, which weighed a trifle over 40 lb., which M. Guillaux had decided to carry, the airman bore a letter or greeting from the Governor of Victoria (Sir Arthur Stanley) to the Governor of New South Wales (Sir Gerald Strickland), and a letter from the French Vice-Consul in Melbourne (M. Momery) to the French Consul-General at Sydney (M. Chayet).

These letters are reproduced below.

Letter to French Consul-General, Sydney, carried by Guillaux, 16-18 July 1914.

Letter carried by Guillaux, postmarked Melbourne, 16 July 1914. Source: Stampboards. Sold by Leski Auctions for $4,000.

Lee cites the fact that a number of letters were part of Guillaux’s cargo, but then presents a convoluted argument that they were not in fact ‘mail’ and therefore the whole historic flight cannot be referred to as Australia’s first aerial mail flight. Lee even includes an illustration of the letter to the French Consul-General in Sydney that was stamped and carried on the flight, and marked ‘Per Aerial Mail’ in black pen similar to the rest of the text on the envelope (illustrated above). But Lee then informs the reader that this annotation ‘appears to be added at a later date’, with no evidence to support this statement. Lee eventually concludes that ‘based on the fact that the Post Office did not instigate the operation and no mail was flown, … this could not have been the first airmail in Australia.’

The present author totally rejects this statement by Ron Lee.

Forgeries - two letters supposedly carried by Guillaux. Offered at Leski Auctions. Note the forged Guillaux signature on the cover at left.

With all due respect to Mr. Lee, in the opinion of this author that statement carries no weight and is not only misleading, but clearly erroneous. The question therefore needs to be asked: Why has Ron Lee sought to rewrite history in this manner?

In 1914 Guillaux’s flight was clearly recognised throughout Australia as the first airmail flight, before, during and after it took place. It was supported by the Post Master General’s Department; postcards and letters were stamped and postmarked in both Melbourne and Sydney; and members of the public and officials made use of the opportunity to post material on this historic first airmail flight. The fact that it was instigated by commercial and private interests does not negate its occurrence and historical significance, or status as official mail. In fact, all early efforts at instigating an aerial mail service in Australia were supported by commercial interests, focused on proving the viability of such a service and its possible use in addition to the then current dispatch of mail by road, rail and sea.

The further fact that the PMG Department publically supported and participated in the flight, and its preparation, puts paid to any suggestion by Lee or others that it was not Australia’s first official airmail flight. This has been recognised on numerous occasions since by the PMG Department and Australia Post, with special commemorative issues in 1964, 1989 and 2014. The Australian aviation fraternity also recognised the historic significance of this pioneering flight and has participated in a number of re-enactments since 1964. Guillaux’s original plane continues to hold pride of place in the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Following Guillaux’s flight in July 1914, the onset of Word War I put paid to any attempts to initiate a regular airmail service in Australia. However, moves in that direction commenced shortly before the end of the war. On 23 November 1917, R. Graham Carey flew his Blériot XI from Enfield to the Gawler Racecourse at Evanston, carrying the first official air mail delivery within South Australia. Some two years later Captain Harry Butler, Chief Flying Instructor of the Royal Australian Flying Corp, flew his 'Red Devil' Bristol M1C monoplane in an air mail flight from Adelaide to Minlaton on 6 August 1919. Also, between November 1919 and February 1920, the first aerial mail flight from England to Australia took place, by Ross and Keith Smith aboard a Vickers Vimy.

Attempts to claim ownership of Guillaux's achievement were not limited to the 1920 Lismore flight. Another claim was made in 1981, in celebration of a November 1921 flight between Geraldton and Perth in Western Australia. The claim by Lee that the airmail flight between Lismore and Tenterfield in June 1920 was ‘the first Australian airmail flight’ should therefore be put to rest, as should any similar claims, and Guillaux’s achievement celebrated for the pioneering effort that it was, alongside an unalterable right to the title.

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3. References

Eustis, Nelson, The Australian Air Mail Catalogue, Volume One, 1914-1941, Review Publications, Dubbo, 1965, 63p.

-----, The Australian Air Mail Catalogue, 4th edition, Hobby Investments, Adelaide, 1984, 230p.

Lee, Ron, The myth that Guillaux carried the first airmail in Australia, Australian Stamps Professional, May/June 2022.

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Maurice Guillaux: 50th Anniversary 1964 | Postcards & Philatelics 1913+ | Flying into Harden 1914 | First Australian Aerial Mail 1914 | Australia - photographs & film 1914 |

Last updated: 12 October 2022

Michael Organ