Recount Australian history and celebrate the life of dairy farmer - Bernard O'Reilly - who heroically saved the lives of two plane crash survivors eight decades ago in virgin World Heritage-listed Lamington National Park.

To commemorate the Stinson airliner's disappearance on the 19th February, 1937 O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat host bi-annual guided hikes that retrace Bernard's footsteps from O'Reilly's to Christmas Creek.

This must-do outdoor adventure experience is 37-kilometres (or 14-hours duration) alongside 19 fellow hikers and is led by passionate tourism-guru Ben Southall and includes a historic recount by an ancestor of Bernard O'Reilly.

Depart the Retreat guesthouse by head torch to witness sunrise at Echo Point before heading 'off track' to Point Lookout. Some 11 hours later witness the crash site and its remains followed by a very steep decent (including small abseil) to Westrays Grave at Christmas Creek.

Pause to reflect on this extraordinary piece of Australian history while soaking your feet in the crystal creek, followed by a two-hour drive from Kerry Valley back to O'Reilly's for a well-deserved celebratory meal.

Note intense fitness requirements are mandatory for safely completing this walk. For more information please visit https://oreillys.com.au/event/stinson-hike/

The Stinson Anniversary Hike

• When: 10th to 12th August, 2018
• Where: O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat
• What: Hike Australia's iconic 37-klm adventure to walk in Bernard O'Reilly's footsteps.

The Stinson flight facts

• Aircraft name was 'City of Brisbane', Registration VH-UHH
• Flight path from Archerfield airport in Brisbane to Sydney Airport via Lismore
• Crashed into terrain in Lamington National Park on the 19th February,1937
• The airliner was caught in the down-draft of a cyclone of probably one hundred miles per hour, and tossed in to the mountain
• The swift action of the pilots whereby banking the plane sharply into starboard saved the lives of the three men
• Three passengers survived the crash, however James Westray died later while searching for help
• After a nationwide search failed, Bernard O'Reilly found the plane nine days after it had crashed with two survivors -Joe Binstead and John Proud

Backgrounder

The first-hand recount of the Stinson

Not even Mrs Proud's five hundred pound incentive to continue the aerial search could entice the Air force of civil authorities to continue the search of the Stinson aircraft which went missing on a routine flight from Brisbane to Sydney in 1937.

It was Bernard O'Reilly's brilliance who unravelled that the Stinson hadn't been lost south of the Hawkesbury, where hundreds had been searching, rather lying somewhere up in the jungle and gorges of the McPherson Range.

On the eighth day since the plane's disappearance, Bernard scrambled to saddle his chestnut horse ironically called 'The Great Unknown' and set off along the Border Track, before sending her home at the Bithongabel and continuing along the backbone of the McPhersons on foot.

“God in Heaven!” Bernard recounts in his famous autobiography titled Green Mountains (1941-42).

“What was this? A numbness shot through my limbs, a sort of coldness that was worse than fear and worse than pain or shock, but was a combination of all three; a feeling that stayed with me through the crowded months between, that is with me even as I write.

“Before I looked down, I knew I would see – a mass of smashed and charred metal. It was more than that: it was a horrible, unclean thing, which held the trapped remains of what once were men – a repulsive thing which I could not go near.

“The voices – men alive, but in what condition?

“I stood for a minute, afraid to go to them, afraid of what I would see. 

Days after navigating through thick jungle clad ranges and gorges, Bernard was the first to witness two men who were struggling from the wreck of the stricken airliner on Sunday 1st March, 1937.

“Proud, I saw first, his eyes far back in his head like those of a corpse, lying as he had for ten days on that wet ground with a broken leg that was green and swelling maggoty.

“Then I turned to Binstead – he tried to shake hands, a poor hand like raw meat. His legs too, were that, and the legs of his trousers were torn away in crawling over the rocks to bring water.”

The men inspiringly kept hope alive and tracked the passing days with a small pocketknife on a piece of wing metal.

“My last words were: I'll bring back a doctor and one hundred men,” Bernard promised.

As home was 22-miles away across impossible terrain, Bernard decided to follow Westray's walk track down dangerous country with cliff faces and loose rock. It was here he discovered the Englishman sitting perched beside a rock. He unfortunately didn't move after falling from the cliff to his death.

Bernard's determination led him to Christmas Creek gorge where the rainforest eased and gave way to white gums and open flats. It was here the sound of John Buchanan's riffle echoed.

Nine days had now passed with no food or medical attention to the survivors. Another 48 hours would unfold – two more nights and two more days until the rescue was finally over.

Heroic John Buchanan was to cut his way in to make room for the stretcher beds alongside every man that could be mustered up fourteen miles through the thickest terrain. Bernard O'Reilly was charged to return to the site with the Dr Lawler and a few others.

Soon the word reached home and Rose O'Reilly (Bernard's sister), with her nurses experience, and Viola O'Reilly (Bernard's wife) set off to look after Bernard on horse back with more supplies. It seems fitting these two strong O'Reilly women were the only women folk to share in the hardship of the rescue.

The heroic task was accomplished and Proud and Binstead were removed from the crash site and astonishingly survived the tragedy.

The heroic bushman – Bernard O'Reilly 

Bernard O'Reilly was born in 1903 to a pioneering Irish-Catholic family. He spent his first 12 years in the secluded Kanimbla Valley of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales before the family moved to the wild and largely unexplored McPherson Ranges in Southern Queensland where they established a haven for guests in a rainforest paradise.

Bernard O'Reilly died in 1975 a true hero in the eyes of Australia. He is laid to rest in the Kerry Valley, located in the heart of the Scenic Rim.

CONTACT:

Media Contact – Nikki Hobbs (nee Dudley), Public Relations

Ph. 07 5502 4900 or pr@oreillys.com.au

Bookings – Reservations

Ph.1800 688 722 or reservations@oreillys.com.au

* Note Nikki works each Tuesday only

HI RES IMAGES available for download here