That unfortunate flight took place on Friday, June 13, 1952. Fortunately there was a kunai (long grass) ridge nearby, and the Dutch pilot executed a safe but very heavy landing.

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Years later, Pat Toole recalled: ‘We had fourteen ‘repats’ on board. We were loaded to the gunnels with everything from axes and knives to all the bits and pieces they were bringing home after working away for two years, and they were all out before Rinus and I were, and we had a door each to get out! We didn’t waste any time either, but they just vanished into the bundu. I don’t think they’d ever fly again! Or maybe they thought that was a normal landing.’

Their adventures soon hit the headlines around the world, with stories from the Women’s Weekly to the Christian Science Monitor. The banners read: ‘That Flying Girl’ and ‘Our First Girl Bush Pilot.’

If flying in New Guinea could ever be described as uneventful, the next 12 months were at least without mishap. Pat flew Austers and Norsemans loaded with anything from mission supplies to government officials. The only thing she never had on board was a radio.

Her close encounter of the hard kind came on a flight without passengers to Tadji and on to Lumi. Pat discovered just how quickly the weather could change in the mountains. She explained:

I was five minutes out of Lumi. I could see it. Then all of a sudden, voomph! Blacked out completely. I’ve never seen a buildup as quick.

So I just stayed in the air as long as I could while I was looking for somewhere to put it down, because I couldn’t get back over the range and I was trying to find a way through to the Sepik flats. But I couldn’t find anything.

Then I saw a gap and a riverbed down there, and I thought, ‘That’ll do me!’

I swung the aircraft around and made for a clearing, and when I got low enough I could see steep banks on both sides of the Keang River. I eased the aircraft down and landed on stones and shingles. The Auster bounced along the riverbed, and the trees got closer, so I pulled the aircraft round in a ground loop.

I had about one gallon of petrol left in the tank, so I was very lucky. I had a good idea where I was and I thought about walking to Dreikikir, which I thought, was about 13 miles away. But I stayed with the plane, and a search patrol from Lumi arrived two nights later.

The Christian Science Monitor recorded that ‘about 100 naked natives with bows and arrows came racing down the river bank towards her. It was a relief when she saw they were all grinning broadly, for she knew then that she had not landed among head hunters!’ ‘That flying girl’ was rescued, and so was the Auster.

Graham had earned a reputation for courage and airmanship — and the respect of the male bush pilots. In fact, the Gibbes Sepik Airways manager, former paratrooper Colin Toole, was so impressed that he proposed. The newly married couple would go on to establish a coffee plantation, together pioneering a new industry for the fledgling nation of Papua New Guinea.

After surviving that rocky river landing, the sturdy Auster was pulled apart and carried to the nearest airstrip. A new propeller was brought in, along with a new undercarriage leg. Workers spliced a new piece of timber into the main spar, after which the plane was flown back to the airline base at Wewak. Pat contended that it actually flew better after the accident, insisting that it was much easier to trim.

Fifty years later, while this article was being researched, that same Auster was discovered in a barn in Australia, less than one hour’s drive from where Pat Toole now lives in retirement. Learning of the restoration project was a huge thrill for her — especially since she has decided to get back in the air. ‘It’s terrific,’ said Pat. ‘It treated me very gently in that riverbed, and I just used to love flying it. It’s been flying on and off over the years. I saw it once in an episode of the TV series The Flying Doctors. Apparently at that stage a fellow in the Air Force owned it, and I think he must have pranged it. It’s been rebuilt several times. It had been out in a severe hailstorm, so that’s why it’s being repaired this time. Oh, it’s a bit like Pat’s ax, and yes, I intend to fly it. That would be fun.’

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