SOUTHERN CLOUD

A local project which is now complete is a 1:16 scale model of the three engine AVRO 618 X “SOUTHERN CLOUD” aircraft. This aircraft was one of five AVRO’s owned by Australian National Airways operated by Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s which flew a regular route between the capital cities down the east coast of Australia.

The “SOUTHERN CLOUD” disappeared without a trace on the 21st of March 1931 with a crew of two and six passengers on a flight between Sydney and Melbourne. It wasn’t until 1958 that the wreckage of the aircraft was discovered in the Snowy Mountains just 37kms from Tumbarumba in an area appropriately named “Worlds End”. The discovery was made by a Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme worker out photographing the bush one Sunday afternoon.

The model has been built from styrene and cast polyurethane parts and has been completely scratch built. “Southern Cloud” was handed over to the Tumbarumba Visitors Centre and Museum on Saturday the 15th of March 2008 and was unveiled by entrepreneur and philanthropist, Mr. Dick Smith. She is now the centrepiece of a display along with artifacts and stories of the “SOUTHERN CLOUD” aircraft, the search and then discovery 27 years later. For more information on Tumbarumba, and more of the story of the Southern Cloud, go to tumbarumba.com.