With the discovery of not one, but two daughters I never knew I had, I dipped my toe into the waters of Ancestry. This was to confirm what my father had already achieved (without the interweb) and maybe see what else was lying around. Having gone back in time on the direct line, I thought I'd see what some of the branch lines might produce. And came across a surprise!
A cousin twice removed (grandfather's nephew) had a newspaper clipping of said cousin wondering whether he would be entering his RAF BE2e in an aerial pageant -in Queensland, of all places! This got the juices excited so on the hunt I went. It seems not only was he an owner of the BE2e (how this 1915 era aircraft got to Ozzie I have yet to discover)but he was also a part owner of an Avro 504K fitted with an inline engine rather than the usual rotary. Even more excitement. Then it transpires that he, the pilot and a few others decide to set up a small airline (at roughly the same time as Kingsford Smith was thinking along similar lines, but after QANTAS had started) called "Queensland Air Navigation Ltd." in 1928. Like a lot of small companies at the time it didn't last too long and folded in 1931.
However with 'some help from my friends', I was presented with an article about the company complete with illustrations of the aircraft 'on the books'. The interesting thing for me was the colour scheme they adopted: black and white chequerboard on the tail. Which happened to be the same adopted by a NZ WW1 ace called 'Grid' Caldwell of 74 Squadron fame. And what else did I find? Another Caldwell was engaged as a 'promoter' of the venture! Whether they were related or not I have yet to determine. But wouldn't that be great for a co-incidence?
One mystery remains: the 504K is shown with the name of the company on its side (but no chequerboard pattern), but there is no record of it ever having been on the company's books. More searching is required!
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