On this day in Wangaratta the famous female aviator Amy Johnson landed at Bowser on Buckler’s private airstrip. The landing was quite a coup for the town as Wangaratta was the only stopover on Johnson’s route from Canberra to Melbourne. Newspaper reports put the crowd at 17,000!
These images were taken by local photographer G. E. (Godfrey Ernest) Roberts and come from the collection of the State Library of Victoria. If you look closely at the first image you can see an awful lot of the local police got front row seats! Their shiny police helmets are a giveaway. I’m sure they were so close for security reasons.
Amy Johnson, by G. E. Roberts, Wangaratta, courtesy State Library of Victoria
Amy Johnson probably leaving the Pinsent Hotel, by G. E. Roberts, a Wangaratta photographer, from the A. C. Dreier postcard collection, courtesy State Library of Victoria
Maitland Mercury, 16th June 1930
