{{Short description|Aircraft disappearance}} {{Italic title|string=Southern Cloud}} {{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox Airliner accident |image=SouthernCloudcrash2.png |caption=VH-UMF, the Avro 618 Ten involved in the disappearance |name=1931 Avro Ten ''Southern Cloud'' disappearance |occurrence_type=Accident |date=21 March 1931 |summary=Severe weather |site=Snowy Mountains, New South Wales, Australia |coordinates = {{coord|35|59.967|S|148|19.775|E|type:event|format=dms|display=inline,title}} |aircraft_type=Avro 618 Ten (license-built Fokker F-VIIB/3m) |operator=Australian National Airways |tail_number=VH-UMF |passengers=6 |crew=2 |injuries=0 |fatalities=8 |survivors=0 }}

The '''''Southern Cloud''''', registered VH-UMF, was one of five Avro 618 Ten three-engined aircraft flying daily airline services between Australian cities for Australian National Airways in the early 1930s.<ref name="NMA">{{cite web | title = Southern Cloud clock | work = National Museum of Australia | url = http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/southern_cloud_clock/ | accessdate = 2008-09-13 | archive-date = 11 June 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110611173150/http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/southern_cloud_clock/ | url-status = dead }}</ref>

==Disappearance== On 21 March 1931, the ''Southern Cloud'' departed at 8:10 AM from Sydney for Melbourne. On board were six passengers and two crew, including pilot Travis "Shorty" Shortridge and assistant pilot C.L. Dunnell.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 October 1958 |title=From the Archives, 1958: The Southern Cloud mystery solved after 27 years |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/from-the-archives-1958-the-southern-cloud-mystery-solved-after-27-years-20191025-p5344f.html |access-date=11 January 2024 |work=The Age}}</ref><ref name="730report">[https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2405965.htm ABC Television – 7:30 Report 30 October 2008]</ref> Weather conditions en route were hazardous and much worse than predicted. The aircraft never reached its destination and disappeared.<ref name="FSM">{{cite web | title = Into The Abyss & Back | work = Flight Safety Magazine | date = July–August 2006 | url = http://www.casa.gov.au/fsa/2006/aug/40-42.pdf | access-date = 2009-05-08 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080809063450/http://casa.gov.au/fsa/2006/aug/40-42.pdf | archive-date = 9 August 2008 | url-status = dead | df = dmy-all }}</ref>

The search for the missing aircraft lasted 18 days and involved over 20 aircraft. No trace of the missing aircraft was found. Airline co-owner Charles Kingsford Smith joined the search and "may have flown over the crash site, but with the aircraft having burned it would be very difficult to distinguish from the air and so the discovery wasn't made."<ref name="730report"/>

It was Australia's first major airline disaster. Australian National Airways folded later that year as a result of both this and another loss. A film inspired by the accident, ''The Secret of the Skies'', was released in 1934.<ref name="smithy">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|date=12 October 2025|access-date=12 October 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-smithy/|title=Forgotten Australian Films: Smithy}}</ref>

==Passengers== Six passengers departed Sydney in the Southern Cloud on 21 March 1931:<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 March 1931 |title=PLANE MISSING.Southern Cloud Lost in Rain. GRAVE ANXIETY. Plans for an Extensive Search. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/21680601/1680318 |access-date=11 January 2024 |work=The Brisbane Courier |pages=11}}</ref> * Mr W. O'Reilly, 229 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. * Miss C. Stokes, O'Sullivan Road, Rose Bay, * Mr. Clyde Hood, Onslow Gardens, Greenknowe Avenue, Darlinghurst. A producer for Union Theatres flying to Melbourne to join his wife (stage name Miss Bertha Riccardo). * Mr H. O'Farrell, 50 Gardenvale Road, Caulfield, Victoria. * Mr. Margules, of Margules and Hickman, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, who flew from Brisbane the week prior. * Miss E. Glasgow, who had booked her travel with Thomas Cook and Sons.

==Investigation and 1958 rediscovery== The ''Southern Cloud''{{'}}s fate remained a mystery for 27 years until 26 October 1958. On that day, Thomas Sonter, a carpenter from New Zealand employed on the Snowy Mountains Scheme, made a chance discovery of the wreck while hiking. The crash site was in heavily timbered mountainous terrain within the Snowy Mountains about {{convert|25|km|mi|abbr=on}} east of the direct Sydney–Melbourne route. Not only was the wreckage off course, it was facing the wrong direction. Investigations concluded that the severe weather conditions at the time of the flight most likely contributed to the crash.<ref name="FSM"/>

A man named Stan Baker had been booked to fly on the fateful journey, but cancelled and travelled by train instead. As a result of the aircraft's disappearance, he harboured a lifelong fear of flying – which was proved justifiable when he was killed in the 1950 Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 crash.<ref name=Simpson>{{cite book|last1=Simpson|first1=Colin|title=Show Me A Mountain: The Rise of an Australian Company, Ampol|date=1961|publisher=Angus & Robertson|location=Sydney|page=151}}</ref>

In Don Bradman's book ''Farewell to Cricket'' he mentions that he flew in ''Southern Cloud'' with pilot Shortridge from Adelaide to Melbourne, then to Goulburn not long before the tragedy. He described the trip as a 'bumpy journey'.<ref name=Bradman>{{cite book| last1=Bradman| first1=Donald| title=Farewell To Cricket|date=1950| publisher=Hodder & Stoughton| location=Sydney| edition=1st| page=35}}</ref>

After the discovery of the wreckage, a large memorial incorporating salvaged parts from the plane was erected in the nearby town of Cooma.<ref>{{cite web |title=Southern Cloud Memorial |url=https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/snowy-mountains/cooma-area/cooma/attractions/southern-cloud-memorial |website=Visit New South Wales |access-date=29 December 2021}}</ref> The crash site is {{convert|1|mi}} north west from Deep Creek Dam; there is a small stream adjacent to the crash site named Shortridge Creek which is a tributary of Deep Creek a short way downstream of the dam.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jagumba NSW 2642, Australia |url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B059'58.0%22S+148%C2%B019'46.5%22E/@-36.0006869,148.3263984,1019m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xcf95c3692e603654!8m2!3d-35.99945!4d148.329583?hl=en |website=Google Maps |publisher=Google, Inc. |access-date=29 December 2021}}</ref> It is unclear when the pilot's name was assigned to the stream or by whom.

==See also== *List of solved missing person cases

==References and notes== {{Reflist}}

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1931}} {{Aviation accidents and incidents in Australia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avro Ten Southern Cloud disappearance 1931}} Category:1931 disasters in Australia Category:1930s in New South Wales Category:1930s missing person cases Category:1931 in Australia Category:Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Category:Australian National Airways (1930) accidents and incidents Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1931 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in New South Wales Category:March 1931 in Australia Category:Missing aircraft Category:Missing person cases in Australia