Tuesday, 29 October, 2024
Cards to improve chances of survival
Yarra Glen Tennis Club shines at awards
Volunteer recognised for five decades of service
See Real Estate liftout inside
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A Star News Group Publication
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New book looks at Kyeema
Tragedy legacy By Mikayla van Loon
Plenty of fun with The Funky Monkey Family Band. (Angela Rivas)
Magical Millgrove on show A fun-filled day came to Millgrove as the Millgrove Residents’ Action Group (MRAG) hosted their annual Millgrove Community Open Day on Sunday 28 October. Performers, community groups and residents gathered outside the Wsburn-Millgrove CFA to enjoy the festivities, as well as get prepared for the summer as part of MRAG’s push to make the community more disaster resilient. Upper Yarra SES, Red Cross, the Wesburn/ Millgrove CFA and MRAg representatives were
all in attendance and the event was certainly not short of entertainment with performances from Maite, Chris James, the Misfit Theatre Company, Toil from Little Yarra Steiner School and The Dreaming Space’s ‘Funky Monkey Family Band’ all on display. Photographer Angela Rivas captured plenty of shots from the Funky Monkey Family Band show and kindly supplied them to the Star Mail to share. Turn to page 10 for more photos from the day
The stories of a potential Prime Minister, a trio of winemakers and a newly wed couple intertwine in the devastating and deadly tale of the Kyeema plane crash. On 25 October 1938 the Australian National Airways DC-2 Kyeema plane took off from Adelaide heading for Essendon. On board were 14 passengers and four crew members. Flying in what was reported by The Argus as “dense cloud” with “visibility…restricted to 50 yards”, the plane plunged into the side of Mount Dandenong, the location now just metres away from the famed Burkes’ Lookout. At the time it was Australia’s “worst disaster in the history of aviation” but it also became an important mark in the country’s history. Delving into the stories and mishaps that led to the plane’s untimely demise, Joel Martin explores it all in his newly authored book The Weeping Mountain. Growing up in Montrose and still a resident in the outer east, Joel said “I just got curious, it’s always fascinated me”. Beginning the research as a pandemic project Joel realised there was much that had been left untold. “It was a big government stuff up where there was a beacon system that should have worked but it wasn’t turned on because they wouldn’t let them buy the right planes to test them, because the planes were American,” Joel said.
“So we had an English policy. The beacons didn’t work, the plane was in the sky, it was meant to land at Essendon but it kept going and it hit Mount Dandenong instead. “The tragedy of the story is that it didn’t need to happen. And when the inquiry was held politicians and bureaucrats lined up to throw each other under the bus.” The good that did come of the tragic event was that it “changed the laws and created the government bodies that make our skies some of the safest in the world”. “It also influenced some random things like the wine cask and Medicare,” Joel said. Joel said instantly for anyone who may search for information on the crash it brings up the story of Charles Hawker, a politician who was on his way back to Canberra where he was said to be about to challenge for the Prime Ministership. “He had a profile. He was a war hero, but he was only one of the 18,” Joel said. Among the dead were honeymooners, who had been married for 72 hours, and were on their way to Tasmania, three best friends who were buried side by side, and other ordinary folk who had taken a chance to fly. “It’s fascinating because on the surface it’s just a story about a plane crash, but it’s a love story, and it’s one about a mum on the plane who was flying because the last time she was near a train, it was sending her son off to war, and he didn’t come back. Continued page 6
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