In 1925, Bert Hinkler built a detached house which he named "Mon Repos" on the Thornhill Estate, Sholing, Southampton, England. From here, he travelled the short distance to A.V. Roe’s experimental aircraft works where he was employed as Chief Test Pilot. The house was a mecca for aviation associates including Roy Chadwick, the great Avro designer.
Bert Hinkler planned most of his epic solo
flights
from "Mon Repos" house. The Ibis aircraft, his dream machine, was
planned
and experimented upon at the site. Some years passed before the home
became
the property of the Southampton City Council. In May and June 1983, the
house was dismantled and transported to Bundaberg, Queensland,
Australia, his
home town, and rebuilt as a Memorial Museum in Bert Hinkler's honour.
The mantle of achievement associated with Australia's great pioneer solo aviator, Bert Hinkler, is indeed captivating - so too was the trans-world transfer of his old Southampton home. For only the second time in Australia's relatively short history had such an undertaking been attempted. The nation embraced this remarkable accomplishment with pride. A pleasing structure, the house stands in the Bundaberg Botanic Gardens overlooking the site where Bert Hinkler landed on 27th of February 1928, following his record shattering solo flight from England to Australia.
Click here to read more about the history of Hinkler House.
Click here to read more about the re-location of Hinkler House.