Even in Australia’s darkest hour there was time for some humanity. In 1936 Qantas founder and Managing Director Hudson Fysh had stayed with the Missionaries at Mornington Island whilst taking part in the Brackley survey for Flying Boat Base sites in the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1938, Qantas began a tradition of dropping mail by parachute for Christmas to the isolated Mission at Mornington Island, since Mornington Island was not far off the track between Karumba and Groote Eylandt. This tradition continued throughout the war and this letter was one of the mail items parachuted in 1942. A total of 325 letters were carried from Sydney and 85 more from Brisbane, of which this is one. The aircraft was Short S.23 Empire flying boat VH-ABG Coriolanus, a former BOAC ‘boat transferred to Qantas in August 1942 in a swap for Qantas ‘boats stranded at the western end of the Horseshoe Route, under Captain Bill Crowther.
