THE STINSEN SEVEN

When we were in the jungle on O'Reilley's Plateau a few weeks ago we were reminded of the story of the Stinson aeroplane crash. The plane with two pilots and five passengers left Brisbane for Sydney on 19 Feb 1937. It was to stop at Lismore on the way. It was very bad cyclonic weather. When the plane didn't arrive in Lismore it was thought that it had flown direct to Sydney down the coast. When it didn't arrive in Sydney search planes were sent out to look for the Stinson. By Feb 26 the search was called off.

Ninety years ago the only access to the plateau was by foot or horseback up a narrow track carved into the mountains by the O'Reilleys, eight Irish cousins who started farming in the area. One branch of the family set up a guesthouse. In 1937 Bernard O'Reilley and his wife Viola were running the guesthouse. It was 26 Feb before Bernard heard the news of the Stinson. He believed the plane would have gone into the mountains on the way to Lismore.

 This monument at O'Reilley's Guest House tells the story of Bernard's amazingly brave search for the Stinson in the jungle clad, rugged mountains of Lamington National Park.

 Bernard draws a line on the map of the route of the plane.

 He cut his way through jungle, he cimbed slippery cliffs, he was scratched by thorns and plagued by leeches for 2 days. He climbed a tree and saw a burnt tree in the distance.

 After eight more gruelling hours he lost sight of the spot due to low clouds but he thought he heard a voice calling. He followed the sound and called back. When he arrived he found two survivors, Joe Binstead 54 and John Proud 30). The bodies of the two pilots (Rex Boyden 41 and Beverley Shepherd 26) and two passengers (William Fountain, James Graham 55) were dead in the burnt out wreckage.

 One other survivor, James Westray, 26 had gone for help but Bernard found him sitting at the bottom of a waterfall dead after an obvious fall had crushed his ankle..

Bernard left a few supplies for them and returned to the guest house to get help. Proud had a broken leg and Binstead was badly burnt and lacerated from walking to a creek to get water and berries every day for Proud. Bernard ran most of the way back travelling through the night, wading through creeks and jumping over rocks.
Fianally after 13 hours he reached a farm and he was given a horse for the rest of the way. He then organised a group of volunteers and a doctor  and took them back to bring out the survivors on stretchers.
The bodies of the dead men were in a too badly damaged state to bring out and they were buried at the site under rocks. Later a family member had an obelisk erected on Mt Lindsay at Border Gate for James Westray, the survivor who tried to get help. You need to be a very fit, hardened bushwalker to reach these burial sites.