Events COMING UP

Guest Speaker Series 2024

monday 25 november 2024

it happened at perth oval
Guest Speaker: Dr peter gall

This month, Dr Peter Gall shares the story of Wing Commander Bert Hinkler’s landing on Perth Oval in 1928 after breaking the record for the London-Darwin solo flight in 15 days and two hours.

Please join us on Monday 25 November 2024 at 7.00pm at the Forrest Park Croquet Club, 66 Harold Street, Mt Lawley. As usual, there will be a chance to mingle afterwards with some warming or cooling refreshments. An RSVP by email would be appreciated mountlawleysociety@gmail.com

Background

Unlike the vast majority of Western Australians, Peter Gall grew up in Brisbane and travelled frequently via Bundaberg where the subject of his talk was born. His name is Bert Hinkler and the relevance to Perth is that in 1928 he set the record for a solo flight from London to Darwin in 15 days 2 hours. The previous record was 28 days, set by the Smith brothers, but they had a much larger plane and three crew. Bert then flew to every capital city in Australia, including Perth. His primary reason for coming to Perth was that he wanted to thank the people of WA. His secondary reason was that his wife, Nance, was arriving two days after him after three months on a mail boat, the Orama, and would be flying back with him to Bundaberg.

Peter Gall has six Degrees, including a PhD. He was Head of Research for the School of Business at the University of Notre Dame for ten years. He’s had six careers during his working life and since retiring in 2019 has devoted himself to a seventh – his passion for creative writing. Peter has written over twenty Feature, TV Pilot and Short Film scripts as well as a few short stories and plays and has had nine placings to date at screenplay writing festivals and screenplay competitions. He also won first prize for a story about Bert at the City of Vincent Historical Society.

Past Events

To see photos and stories of some of our past events, please go to the Past Events page