THE GREAT PAPUA NEW GUINEA AIR SAFARI 1999.
(Final night contribution by the West Australian Hay Seeds)

 

There was movement at the airstrip for the word had past around
That the Cessna Three Forty had got away
And gone high up in the sky - it was worth $100,000 pound
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted fliers from near and far
Had mustered at the Airstrip over night
For bush pilots love hard flying where the bush planes are.
There was Finlen who made his pile when Paradise won the cup
Old Bert with his hair as white as snow
But few could fly behind him once he got his 206 to go
He would go wherever plane and man could go
And Batesy of New Guinea came down to lend a hand
No finer pilot ever held the stick
For never plane could throw him while the seat belts would stand
He learnt to fly while touring in the thick
And one was there a stripling in a small and weedy Maule
Something like a Cessna undersized
With a dash of home built - three parts thoroughbred at least
And such as are by mountain flyers prized
He was hard and tough and wiry - just the sort who won’t say die
There was courage in his quick impatient rev
And he bore the badge of gameness in his steady eye
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head
But still so slight and weedy one would doubt his power to stay
And the Bos Pella said "That plane will never do
For a long and tiring flight - lad you'd better stop away
Those hills are far too rough for such as you".
So he waited sad and wistful - only Batesy stood his friend
"I think we ought to let him come" he said;
I warrant he’ll be with us when he’s wanted at the end.
For both his plane and he are bushy bred.
"He hails from Hunter Valley up by Kendall side
Where hills are half as steep and valleys twice as wide
Where props strike firelight from flintstones every flight
The man that holds his own is good enough.
The Hunter River flyers an the mountains make their home
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many flyers since I first commenced to roam
But nowhere yet such flyers have I seen".

Theo Seymour

(With apologies to Banjo Paterson)