Gloomy grey clouds cling like muddy clumps of cotton wool to the surrounding hills; some so close you could almost touch them. The bush is strangely quiet, the only noise the gentle pitter-patter of rain drops on the tin roof of the century-and-a-half old homestead.
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"It wouldn't have been this tranquil when Andy started-up his biplane plane and took off on his hair-raising joyrides," explains Jennifer Horsfield, who is sitting next to me, sheltering from the rain on a log on the old veranda.
We are at out-of-the-way Orroral Homestead, the oldest standing dwelling (built late 1860s) in Namadgi National Park, and Horsfield, a Canberra historian-come-bushwalker is sharing some insights into the remarkable life of Andrew (Andy) Twynam Cunningham (1891-1959), who was arguably the historic homestead's most colourful owner.
According to Horsfield, who knows more of Cunningham's life than most, studying it extensively while writing the biography of his mother, Mary Cunningham: An Australian Life (Ginninderra Press, 2004), "as the second eldest of eight children, Andy was destined to continue the tradition of two previous generations of the prominent grazing dynasty of Tuggeranong, Lanyon and Tidbinbilla."
As an sign of these lofty expectations, according to Horsfield "while at university in Sydney, Cunningham was selected to be part of Australian rowing team for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, but his father [Jim] refused him permission to go, insisting he return to Canberra to focus on the family farm."
"Jim wanted to see his eldest son learning to manage the property just like he and his brother had learned from boyhood to manage the large estates of his father," says Horsfield, adding "family anecdotes suggest that Jim saw Andy's interest in sport as frivolous and a waste of time and money."
Further, according to Horsfield any residual interest Cunningham had in following in his father's footsteps were firmly put to rest after the first world war.
"When Andy, a decorated Light Horseman returned home in 1919, he was a damaged man," explains Horsfield, explaining "in the years immediately after the war he discovered many distractions to divert his attention away from management of Lanyon."
Scarred by his experiences in the Middle East, Cunningham turned to gambling and alcohol. "There are records of him attacking someone in Cooma and a front page of the Queanbeyan Age reported he was involved in a brawl outside the Crawford's Hotel that had to be broken up by police," says Horsfield, adding "you can imagine how shameful that would have been for the family who were so highly regarded within the community".
No doubt adding to his family's disappointment, "in 1922, a Mrs Nan Kirby, a young divorced woman from Sydney answered Cunningham's call for a cook and housekeeper, a romantic liaison followed and soon afterwards a son, Keith, was born to the couple in 1923," explains Horsfield.
"The liaison was kept as secret as possible," discloses Horsfield, adding "it would have been such shameful thing for the family, for Andy to be involved in such an illegitimate relationship."
Somewhat conveniently it seems that Mrs Kirby no longer wanted a rural life so moved with her young son to Sydney where Keith's birth wasn't registered until 1930, the year they ended up marrying.
During the interim, Cunningham became even more focussed on his foibles and interest in managing Lanyon and the social expectations attached to such a role, waned even further.
"In 1928 following the sale of Lanyon a year earlier, Andy retreated to the bush, buying this more remote Orroral run," explains Horsfield pointing to the land stretching along the full extent of the rain-swept valley in front of us.
"It was while he was here that his penchant for flying began to take hold," reveals Horsfield, adding, "his fascination for flying began when he was on lookout in trenches in Gallipoli, he'd look up and see the planes, and later in the war he was apparently captivated by the daredevil antics of the German Taubes."
Free of his family shackles at Lanyon, Cunningham promptly acquired his pilot's license and purchased his own plane, a de Havilland Gipsy Moth which he named the Orroral Dingo.
"There are tales of him starting it up to scare away the dingos," she says, adding, "but it was the people on the ground who were just as startled with his acrobatic antics in the valley and beyond.
"In 1929, the newspapers reported Andy lost after flying in the mountain gorges near Cooma and then disappearing…he didn't turned up until the next Saturday morning," says Horsfield, adding, "there are also many reports of joy rides and fishing jaunts to Batemans Bay where he would land on a cliff-top which necessitated a hair-raising take-off over the cliff to gain high speed over water."
To share with me the flamboyant airman's most astonishing antics in the Orroral Dingo, Horsfield leads me through the wet paddock just behind the homestead to the elevated bush pole frame and corrugated iron woolshed which Cunningham had built around 1930.
"The road into the valley was notorious, a bit of a goat track, so after buying the sheets of corrugated iron to build the shed from Lysaghts in Queanbeyan, instead of packing them into a truck, Andy tied them to the wings of the Orroral Dingo and flew them in," reports Horsfield, exclaiming "there are stories of sheets floating down over the landscape, but thankfully no record of any animal or person being injured!"
Inside the woolshed, recently restored, Horsfield guides me to the sorting area which she reveals "was the dance floor when Cunningham threw a party to celebrate the completion of the woolshed," and continues to regale me with even more stories of Cunningham's daredevil antics.
In mid-1929, during a flight to mark the centenary of Western Australia, Cunningham made a false landing near Kalgoorlie and spent six days repairing a wrecked undercarriage with the help of an old blacksmith from the local settlement. Cunningham is quoted in the Sydney Sun of 6 August 1940, "We had no tools but with the tree of a camel saddle and the bow of a buggy hood we fixed up the machine, using a red hot poker to bore the holes for the bolts."
Not surprisingly, soon afterwards the Orroral Dingo was deemed unairworthy by the Civil Aviation Department, but that didn't curb Cunningham's fixation with flying. Inspired by the success of long distance aviator Bert Hinkler, in 1930 Cunningham bought a new plane, a Genairco Moth and attempted his own long distance flight to England. "So as not to worry his mother, he travelled under a false name and in disguise," muses Horsfield, explaining, "his efforts were in vain, for his flight came to an end in Burma where engine troubles caused him to abandon and return to Australia by ship."
"When war broke out again in 1939, Andy was too old to enlist in the army, so he joined the American Small Ships ferrying supplies up to the Philippines and New Guinea," says Horsfield, adding "in 1942, he travelled to India and was involved in the airlift of supplies over the Himalayas to Chiang Kai-sheck's army in western China."
Peering out of the woolshed's windows and with the sky still threatening, we decide to trudge back towards our cars. Leaving the homestead behind, Horsfield reveals the final chapter in Cunningham's life. Despite erroneous reports that he died in a plane crash near Cronulla, Horsfield confirms "Andy was badly injured in a car crash in Victoria in 1959 and died six months later a paraplegic." A sad end to a life of such vitality and spirit.
Each year to coincide with Anzac Day this column shines the spotlight on a colourful Canberran who has served our country with distinction. While Cunningham clearly didn't meet the expectations of his family in taking over the reins of their pastoral empire, and definitely wasn't the perfect role model for his seven siblings, he did serve admirably across two world wars and leaves a lasting legacy of stories from the golden age of aviation.
Fact File
Don't miss: A guided walk to the Orroral Homestead, former home of Light Horseman and intrepid pilot Andy Cunningham on Saturday 29 April as part of the Canberra & Region Heritage Festival. Meet at Orroral Campground Namadgi National Park (allow 30 minutes' drive from Tharwa), at 1.30pm. Includes afternoon tea. Gold coin donation. Bookings essential. Ph: 6231 4535 or email: robhorsfield@bigpond.com
Tim's Tip: While this 4km (each way) walk on a well-made track is a delightful at this time of year, it's the stories that Jennifer Horsfield will share on the life and times of Cunningham that will make this event irresistible to history buffs.
World War One Service: Andy Cunningham joined the 1st Light Horse Regiment in 1914 and after training in Egypt served in Gallipoli, Palestine and Syria. In 1917 he was promoted to Captain and took command of the 2nd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron. He served in the Middle East for the duration of the war.
Check it out: If you venture inside the Orroral Homestead which was painstakingly restored over 16 years (1982-1998) by ACT Parks and Conservation Service in conjunction with volunteer members from the National Parks Association of the ACT, you will notice old newspaper cuttings used as insulation. The oldest I could find was dated July 6, 1867. Can you find older?
WHERE IN CANBERRA?
Cryptic Clue: Thankfully never used for its original purpose.
Degree of difficulty: Medium.
Last week: Congratulations to Peter Kercher, of Holt, who was first to correctly identify last week's photo as the façade of All Saints Anglican Church in Cowper Street, Ainslie during construction in the late 1950s. Peter Harris, of Latham, who married his wife Lorraine at the landmark church in 1970 explains "the stone to build the church used came from Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney where the building was the Mortuary Railway Station from 1868 to 1948", adding "the church bought the stone for 100 pounds, transported it to Canberra it opened in 1958".
Kercher beat many other readers to the prize, including Rachel De Boni, of Harrison, who has "many photographs taken standing in front of the church during her wedding in 2010," and Amanda, of Bonython, whose reveals her "uncle was one of the stone masons during the church's construction."
Don't miss the one-off free guided tour of the heritage-listed church from 11am-noon on Saturday May 6. Ph: 0419 218 410 or bhurrell@csu.edu.au for more information.
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday April 22, 2017 with the correct answer wins a double pass to Dendy cinemas.
CONTACT TIM: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, 9 Pirie Street, Fyshwick. You can see a selection of past columns online.
