After its early showing in the 1909 mystery airship wave, Australia was rarely visited by phantom airships proper. Maybe that's because real airships were even rarer, with none that I know of between 1914 and the late twentieth century: they just weren't a very plausible thing to think you saw. But they did turn up sometimes.

There was one in Western Australia in 1910, another in 1918, and a relatively famous one on 10 June 1931 between Lord Howe Island to Jervis Bay. That last one was seen by Sir Francis Chichester while making the first east-west solo flight from New Zealand to Australia -- though he seems to have only reported it decades later, and even then stopped of short of claiming it actually was an airship. In 1925, another phantom airship was seen, more definitely but equally incongruously, at Myall, near the Murray River in northern Victoria.

The first report I can find, from 26 March 1925, has few details, so while it's not from a local source it must be close to the original:

A resident of Myall (Victoria) states that on Sunday afternoon [22 March 1925] he saw a large airship; apparently unattended and uncontrolled. It was drifting north. It looked like a Zeppelin, and was turning round and round, at the same time rising and falling slowly. Eventually it disappeared from view behind some trees.¹

The first reasonably full and reasonably local report appeared the following day, in the Melbourne Herald. It gives the name of the witnesses as Mr and Mrs G. Cockcroft of Myall, who

were walking to church about 3 p.m., when they noticed a large cigar-shaped object in the sky. They describe it as being similar to a Zeppelin in appearance and travelling at a high speed at an altitude of about 2,000 feet. When first seen it was heading northwards, but afterwards it made an erratic course which Indicated that it had got out of control. No attempt was made to make a landing but the airship eventually continued on its course towards the New South Wales side of the Murray.²

No explanation was offered as to how a Zeppelin might have got to the Murray, but the Herald observed that 'Although the Victorian side of the Murray is closely settled in the locality where the airship was seen, the other side consists of large stations over which such a vessel might pass unobserved'.³ (Though, having grown up not too far from Myall, I can say that 'closely settled' is a relative term.)

A few days later, the statement of Mr G. Cockcroft (now said to be of Kerang) was published:

When I first noticed the large object it was moving steadily forward. The sun was behind us, and we had a good, clear view. We could even see the suspended observation cars. There was a strong wind blowing. The ship was exactly like a Zeppelin, the shape of which anyone would recognise. The ship was drifting in a clear sky, and was evidently unmanned. Otherwise it would have continued in the one direction, instead of rising and falling. We naturally watched it with interest as long as we could see it. It finally disappeared behind a fringe of trees on the horizon.⁴

Note that it's no longer 'similar' to a Zeppelin but 'exactly like' one, down to the 'suspended observation cars'. Also, a third witness had now come forward, Mr McLean of Myall, said to have confirmed 'this' (what, exactly?), adding that 'My view [...] was obstructed by trees, but the object was like a big cigar in shape.'³

There's not much sign of authorities taking this very seriously, apart from an early report saying that 'police stations are on the watch for the visitor'.⁵ A more obviously expert body, the Air Board, was apparently given the report. Despite overseeing the Royal Australian Air Force, which itself had its origins in a mystery aeroplane panic, the Air Board's officials were said to be 'sceptical' and their 'accepted theory is that the reported airship was probably a bank of clouds'.⁶ To this Cockcroft retorted that

The theory that it was a bank of cloud or smoke is absurd, because the high wind would have broken it in less time than we had the object in view; a cloud would also have risen and not sunk behind the trees.⁷

The only other theory offered to explain the Myall Zeppelin was inspired by another unknown and uncontrolled lighter-than-aircraft which appeared in Melbourne one week later:

Many residents in East Melbourne were surprised yesterday evening [29 March 1925] to see a balloon at a great height, blowing over the district from the direction of Richmond. It was obviously not under control, and when, after sinking a little, the envelope collapsed and fluttered gently on to a roof in George street, there was a rush to examine it.

Mr A. Gibson, on whose roof, near the intersection of George and Simpson streets, the balloon landed, had no knowledge that anything unusual had occurred until his door-bell rang. Outside was a perspiring cyclist, who said he had followed a mysterious balloon from Richmond, and that it had fallen on the roof.⁸

This was quite evidently a real balloon, though not a big one, being only an estimated 10 feet in height when inflated. No one claimed responsibility for it initially, leaving the Herald to speculate about a connection to the Myall Zeppelin:

Yesterday's dlscovery may have some bearing on the origin of the mystery Zeppelin reported to have been seen over Kerang [sic] last week. Possibly experimenters have been at work in various parts of the State, and the Kerang airship may have been just such another paper bag filled with gas.³

However, this theory would seem to have been scotched by the revelation a few days later that the balloon 'was the property of Mr [...] Luke, son of an aerial advertising expert' and that 'It had been sent up for the purpose of releasing advertising matter'.⁹ Not that I've been able to track down anything about this Luke, but a small balloon doesn't seem to fit the description of the airship seen at Myall, and why would you waste a balloon advertising to the relatively trackless wastes of the central Murray? Not that I have any better idea of what the Cockcrofts and McLean saw at Myall; but despite airships being rare in Australia in 1925 they were all over the press, including the rather splendid but completely imaginary 'BRITISH-INDIAN & AUSTRALASIAN AIR SERVICE' vessel shown at the head of the post, drawn by a Melbourne poster artist, F. Kenwood Giles, to illustrate the Imperial Airship Scheme.¹⁰ So they wouldn't have had to look too far for inspiration.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://airminded.org/copyright/.

1. Uralla Times, 26 March 1925, 2. [↩]
2. Herald (Melbourne), 27 March 1925, 1. [↩]
3. Ibid. [↩] [↩] [↩]
4. Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga), 30 March 1925, 2. [↩]
5. News (Hobart), 27 March 1925, 1. [↩]
6. Northern Star (Lismore), 30 March 1925, 4. [↩]
7. Muswellbrook Chronicle, 31 March 1925, 3. [↩]
8. Herald (Melbourne), 30 March 1925, 1. [↩]
9. Geelong Advertiser, 2 April 1925, 1. [↩]
10. Herald (Melbourne), 27 February 1925, 9; though I've taken the image from Herald (Melbourne), 12 January 1924, 24, because it's much clearer. [↩]