"Irish Heritage Australian village. Drama beyond." Killarney by australia2

The lovely little Australian village of Killarny nestles on the western foothills of the 'Main Range' National Park in Southern Queensland - just slightly north of the border with N.S.W. The setting is very beautiful.
It is 32kms east of Warwick. Approximately 100 kms further to the east is the contrasting coastal festive area of Surfer's Paradise.
The area in this picture is well into the range and is looking across the Condamine River source 'Heads Valley', and towards the scene of the crash referred to in the next chapter.

The actual crash area is roughly on the out-of-sight, western, far side of the light coloured area right of centre.

So near to the safety of the peak !

Story Board at Carr's Lookout..

Many people, like myself, come here hoping to somehow give sense to the real life tragedy of 50 years ago when, on a Mercy Flight from Townsville to Brisbane on Easter Saturday morning, 1955, an RAAF Lincoln aircraft crashed in the darkness and drizzling rain near the top of Mount Superbus close to Killarney. The time was 4.15 A.M. The four senior air-crew members , a Nursing Sister and a one day old baby were all killed instantly. Hence, the absolute rugged beauty of 'The Main Range' of mountains - 'The Scenic Rim' - now has a dramatic mystery about it. WHY ? Why did such a terrible thing happen. ?
The subsequent Court of Enquiry, the proceedings of which I have a full copy, found that error of navigation and pilot (Captain) error led to the disaster. They actually were 40 miles inland from their near-coastal destination.
Night navigation in that era was very crude and the aircraft's compass was unknowingly a small number of degrees out.
As they travelled south, thinking the were near the coast, they were unknowingly creeping further and further inland. Their scheduled reports en route were incorrectly sent. A bad error. They tried to identify certain towns near their positions, such as Killarney, Warwick, Bell. But seemingly could not properly locate themselves.
A pilot, under such ill-informed, dubious circumstances does the right thing in heading east, out to sea. That was being done but the unsighted very top of Mount Superbus was in between their position and their 'destination'. It takes so little.

N.B. The Lincolns operated by 10 (M.R.) Sqdn. were of a special type. They carried Sonar-buoy submarine tracking equipment in an extended nose section. They consequently became known, unofficially, as "long nosed" Lincolns.
It was in this front section that the doomed Nursing Sister and the baby were travelling.
(Strictly speaking, these particular aircraft should not be referred as a 'bomber' type of aircraft.)

A different Lincoln "on final" at Townsville.

I was a Radar Technician on the 'strength' of 10 Sqdn at that time
and like all others was very deeply shocked by the tragedy. The recently observed 50th anniversary of the sad event, held at Emu Vale, has brought together many sources of information which could see the publication of an investigative book on the subject.
I was a passenger in the aircraft in this photo returning from Manus Island most likely. This was not the doomed Lincoln. That one was A73-64, radio callsign, Jig Charlie Baker.