The PowerHouse Development Centre is one of the hidden treasures of Sydney’s cultural life. It is the storage facility for the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences which includes other organisations such as the PowerHouse museum. They are often open for school and other groups and have an open weekend every month.

This weekend is devoted to Flight, and this topic has been chosen largely because of the imminent airmail re-enactment. The museum’s keen and knowledgeable volunteers are conducting numerous ‘behind the scenes’ tours of the flight collection and of the remarkable early aircraft engine collection. The opening of this section has been very popular with a wide range of people. There are paper plane model making activities and other air-related activities for children, including one where the children make aerogrammes. These will be carried on the re-enactment flight, and this free activity does a lot to introduce the youngest generation to the idea of letter-writing – and the physical transport of paper messages! Also in attendance is the Lawrence Hargrave Society, bringing this great Australian some of the credit his researches deserve.

This is exactly the sort of synergy that we hoped for when we began this commemorative process nearly a year ago, and we thank Christopher Snelling, his helpful staff and the volunteers for making it all possible. We will try to extend the aerogramme exercise to the airfields at which the re-enactment lands.

There is a lot to be done, but just for interest here is a comparison of organisation of our re-enactment with the planning of the original flight.

Arthur Rickard was a mover and shaker of the early 1900s. He subdivided land in many suburbs and towns – from Glebe to Woy Woy and Wentworthville. He had imported Wizard Stone, an American, to give aerial displays, which were very successful. A young Bert Hinkler was employed as mechanic.

With the arrival of Guillaux, the popularity of Stone’s relatively staid flying displays declined, and special stunts had to be invented to keep him in the public eye. In mid-May Rickard announced that Stone would make an airmail flight from Melbourne to Sydney. Elaborate postcards were printed and sold, but on 1 June Stone had a bad crash, damaging both himself and his machine. On 19 June it was announced that Guillaux would make the flight, but agreement was not reached and on 9 July it was announced that Guillaux would not fly for Rickard. On the same day, application was made to the Post Office for Guillaux to make the flight, and one week later he was in the air. In that week, landing fields were found in Seymour, Wangaratta, Harden and Goulburn, mechanics and fuel were sent to each stop, sponsors were found, postcards were printed and sold.

We will send out invitations shortly, but if you are in Sydney and can come to the Australian Aviation Museum at Bankstown on July 2, 5pm to 7pm the commemorative Australia Post stamp packages will be launched in Sydney. Stamp clubs, aviation enthusiasts, historical societies and other groups will be represented. This will precede the July AHSA meeting which will also be held at AAMB.

We showed many people at Castle Hill yesterday and the consensus was that we had a good balance between the original postcards carried by Guillaux and an entirely new design. The new postcards have all the features of the original, with additional space for the larger stamps and also for a brief explanation of the event. They come in a specially designed small folder which both protects and enhances the postcards. When the folder is opened out we have an A4 display that looks very good in a picture frame. When we have finalised the design we will print pictures in the daily bulletin.

In the meantime sales are continuing. The website shop is working well, but remember if you have problems email us or buy through Mike Hill at Bexley Stamps at no extra charge: details on the website.