As you'll see on the information card in the previous shot, "Miss Flinders" is a Desoutter Mark II Monoplane built at the Croydon Aerodrome in London in 1930. It is number 30 of only 41 that were ever built. This is one of the last 3 remaining anywhere in the world.
In September 1930 it was sold to an air taxi company in Dublin, but unfortunately most airstrips in Ireland were too small to accommodate it. It is however, the oldest surviving aircraft on the Irish register.
In November 1931 two Melburnians Harold Jeffrey and Harry Jenkins bought the plane to fly back to Australia (such flights were extremely rare at that stage). This marathon flight started in the UK on 27 December, 1931 and arrived in Darwin on 10 February 1932. These enterprising airmen then sold the plane to a company at Essendon - then the location of Melbourne's airport.
I need to add that the name "Miss Flinders" comes from her last role as a passenger plane between Launceston and Flinders Island.
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