Perth Voice Interactive

A new documentary shedding light on a secretive aspect of Perth’s involvement in World War II was launched this week.

Seventy years ago the first “double sunrise” flights left Perth for Britain.

With Australia’s delivery lines through Singapore cut off, the flights were a desperate attempt to re-establish contact with Europe, carrying top secret mail and VIPs past the Japanese aerial blockade.

The flights took so long they were dubbed the “double sunrise”, and to this day hold the record for the longest commercial flight at 32 hours, 9 minutes.

Queensland doco maker Daniel Bunker became interested in the story after bumping into the chairman of the Qantas museum.

Historic flights

“He told me about these historic flights that nobody knew about,” he says.

Mr Bunker, now 21, tracked down one of the last surviving pilots, Rex Senior.

The project was so secretive Dr Senior couldn’t tell people he was part of the war effort.

“Rex went to buy something from a shop in Kings Park, and the guy told him over the counter to ‘stop being a bludger and sign up’,” Mr Bunker recounts.

“He was also given a white feather for that as well. If a man was seen to be not part of the war, he’d be given a white feather to symbolise that he was a coward, a chicken.”

Despite allegations of cowardice at home, Dr Senior did get strafed and bombed by a Japanese betty bomber while refuelling off the Cocos Island.

Overall the missions were highly successful, and not a single plane was shot down in 271 missions.

But with their story so top secret, the tale faded after the war. The Catalinas were towed off Rottnest and used as target practice by the navy.

Mr Bunker’s documentary commemorating the 70th year of the Double Sunrise flights is at http://www.catalinadoco.com.

by DAVID BELL