The first aircraft purchased by the newly-formed Civil Aviation Branch, this aircraft
(c/n 6117) was imported from Britain and registered to the CAB on 28 June 1921.
G-AUCA was among the first civil aircraft registrations issued in Australia (#
46) when the Australian civil Aircraft Register was officially established on
28 June 1921. It was also the first Australian aircraft to bear a 'personalised'
registration (G-AUCA = Civil Aviation). Its type was listed
as a "Bristol Tourer", powered by a 230hp Siddeley Puma water-cooled engine. It
was the same type of biplane, derived from the wartime Bristol F.2B 'Fighter', as used by West Australian Airways to establish Australia's
first scheduled airline service from Geraldton to Derby in WA.
Below, the Tourer blows a lot of smoke while running-up.
Bristol Tourer G-AUCA was used extensivelyby the CAB to inspect and select sites
for aerodromes. It is seen below outside the Shaw-Ross Engineering and
Aviation Company hangar at Port Melbourne in the early 1920s.
Australian Aerial Services Ltd. (AASL), a subsidiary of Larkin Aerial
Supply Company (LASCo) opened the third air mail service in Australia
on 2 June 1924, flying from Adelaide to Sydney via Mildura, Hay, Narrandera
and Cootamundra. Although the CAB had awarded the subsidy contract in
1921, it was more that two years before the service finally commenced
using a DH4, Sopwith Wallaby and a Sopwith Antelope. The photo
below shows the CAB's Tourer G-AUCA in the rudimentary LASCo hangar at Hay,
south-western New South Wales, in the mid 1920s.
Tourer G-AUCA was used extensively to inspect and select sites for aerodromes.
It is seen below in a typically spartan bush setting - actually Balranald, Vic.
In March 1923 the CAB's Tourer G-AUCA was used to accompany Vickers Vulcan G-EBET on a flight from Point Cook, Vic, to Longreach, Qld.
The
intriguing image below shows the two aircraft at an unknown location on this trip. The CAB's Tourer,
flown by Capt. E.J. Jones with Inspector R.H. Buchanan and Inspector R.U. Hoddinot, accompanied
the Vulcan to Longreach where the Vulcan was to undergo a trial for the fledgeling
Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Service (Q.A.N.T.A.S). The
trial was a dismal failure in the hot Australian conditions.
Typical of the rugged flying conditions in outback Australia in 1923, the photo below
shows CAB Bristol Tourer G-AUCA and Vickers Vulcan G-EBET at Narromine, NSW, on
their way to Longreach.
Following the trial, the Branch's crew set off for home but the Tourer crashed on the return journey at Bourke, NSW, on 16 March 1923. All crew members were admitted to hospital with serious injuries. The wreck of G-AUCA was promptly purchased by West Australian Airways who used the it and a spare airframe to build up a new Tourer for their Western Australian services as G-AUDX or G-AUDZ.
(Photos: CAHS collection)