Discussions on the history and historiography of Australia's New England

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Aviation and the Perdriau Rubber Company

Gordon Smith's Old news from Armidale and New England carried two stories that caught my eye.

The first was For sale: “Booloominbah”. As it happens, I am presently reading Mathew Jordan's A spirit of true learning, a jubilee history of the University of New England. I will write more on this a little later.

In the second story, Sydney to Brisbane flight in nine hours, the name Perdriau caught my attention. The story deals with a Friday 9 July 1920 flight by a plane owned by the Perdriau Rubber Company that landed at no less than six New England towns on its way through.

The Perdriau Rubber Company was formed by Henry Perdriau and ultimately became Dunlop. I had no idea that the company was involved in aviation.

Henry's nephew Raymond took up a selection on the Tweed River in 1906; he carried on dairying and, later, banana-growing. A strong New Stater, he was elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly as a member for Byron in 1920. There are some interesting stories here that I should write about, for the period after the 1920 elections was politically stormy.

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