Three quick stories for All Hallows Eve.

Three quick stories for All Hallows Eve.


Three Flash fiction stories that have been kicking around for years.
All released to enjoy Halloween.

 ALWAYS CHOOSE TREAT 

 Jason walked up the footpath with his usual swagger, his mates lagging a few steps behind.
He leaped up the stairs in one bound.
 "I'll show you how it's done" he boasted as he smacked loudly on door.
 "Go away" came a muffled voice behind the door.
 Jason kept banging until he heard footsteps pounding towards the door.
 It swung open revealing a skinny, tired looking old man
 "What?"
 "Trick or Treat?" asked Jason
The man stood- staring at Jason for a good twenty seconds.
Then said: "Trick"
"Tight arse" Jason mumbled and in one fast motion thrust out his hand which palmed an egg and slammed it into the man's forehead.
 "There" shouted Jason and turned to run.

 The man shot Jason in the back five times before he made it down the stairs.


 THE HALLOWEEN HOUSE 

 The four teenagers moved up the overgrown pathway leading up to the dilapidated house, flashes of light burst intermittently through the broken windows.
 Anticipation pumped through their veins.
“You know how the spirits effected Thelma last year” warned Fred
 “Yeah, made her do the Exorcist/Linda Blair pea soup thing – ughh disgusting ” answered Daphne. “Don’t worry we sure leaned our lesson” said Shaggy “Thelma’s designated driver this year and Scoobies only drinking beer”

 ALL SOULS DAY 

 Terry held his head in his hands as he sat on the steps leading up to the party.
Tears fell from his face onto his shoe less feet and instantly disappeared.
 It had been two years now and nobody seemed to remember him anymore.
 “I show them, they’ll miss me when I’m gone” he’d vainly cried.
The accident had proved that, his funeral was massive and all the girls cried.
 Some even kept photos, for a while.

 But now it was different story.
 Beside his still grieving parents he never heard his name mentioned amongst his old crowd.
 He was stuck, he hadn’t been offered Heaven , he hadn’t been offered Hell.
It was just him and his heavy head.
Terry stood up and put his head under his arm and walked back through the yard to Cemetery
He was wrong - popularity was fleeting.
 Death was eternal and lonely.


 All (c) 2015 Danny Nolan

The Mount Dandenong Aircraft Disaster

For some years I’d been aware of an aircraft accident on Mt Dandenong and I always made a mental note to read up on it. Well I finally did and was amazed at the relative closeness to home and the major effect it had on Australian aviation in the areas of safety and administrative control of the Australian airways.

 25th October this year will mark the 76 anniversary of the Kyeema Airline disaster. When a Douglas DC2 crashed in the Western face of the Mt Dandenong killing all aboard. At the time it was Australia’s worst aviation disaster. Aboard were fourteen passengers and four crew consisting of a pilot, copilot, an airhostess and a cadet pilot. Among the passengers were Federal politician Charles Hawker and prominent South Australian winemakers Hugo Gramp Tom Hardy and Sidney Hill Smith as well as several barristers; and a young couple on their honeymoon.
The Kyeema was heading to Canberra from Adelaide via Essendon airport The flight took off from a clear-skied Adelaide at 11:22. As it entered the area around Melbourne, it came across a heavy cloud layer making landmark navigation difficult. As a result, the flight crew mistakenly identified Sunbury as Daylesford through a gap in the clouds, leading them to believe that they were 32 kilometres behind where they actually were on their flight plan. Had the flight crew cross-referenced their ground speed with previous landmarks, they would likely have realised that they were not where they thought they were. Instead, they overshot Essendon and, unable to see through the heavy fog, crashed into Mount Dandenong a few hundred metres from the summit at 1.45 PM.
As reported in The Argus the next day:
“The propellers of the great Douglas machine sheared the tops off trees for about 50 feet before the wings were ripped from the fuselage on the trunks of trees, and the machine crumpled on the rocky hillside. It burst into flames at once, and all except four of its occupants, who were thrown clear, were burned beyond recognition.”
 Straight away Officials of airline companies and pilots on the regular services were unanimous in their strong criticism of the Civil Aviation Department for its failure to put into regular service the wireless beacon which has been installed at Essendon for approximately 18 months. This immediate outcry and because of public demand a Royal Commission was established before the week was over. The Kyeema crash was a watershed in Australian aviation. At the time navigational radio beacons were in place that could have prevented the accident. They just hadn't been turned on.
This is even more damning when it was revealed the disaster was blamed on a combination of the presence of a heavy fog and the use of an outdated navigational practice, which relied solely on landmarks to determine position.

  

                                

The Kyeema inquiry, large enough to be held in Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building, would eventually confirm that human error had caused the crash. Navigating largely by landmarks, as was normal at the time, the second pilot in the plane had confused the rural town of Daylesford with a town much closer to Melbourne, most likely Sunbury or Gisborne. This meant that the crew thought they were further away from the city than they were, leading to the fatal overshoot. But while the investigation would confirm that this navigating mistake had lead to the crash, it would also make important safety recommendations that would reshape Australian aviation. Responsibility for the oversight of civilian aviation would move from within the Department of Defence, where it was not given a high priority, to a standalone body, the Civil Aviation Authority. The new body would be given increased resources and policing powers. The revised CAA would instigate a reform of Australia's Air Traffic Control system, moving towards instrument based navigation in an attempt to reduce human error based accidents. Ironic since - as mentioned earlier - Essendon airport already had a powerful radio beacon, installed some eighteen months before the crash, was not in use.

Looking North along Liverpool Rd The Basin.
Opposite the retarding Basin.

If you are like me and want a more precise place where the plane crashed rather than the Western face, I’ll try and give you a better idea. If you are facing the mountain while standing on the intersection of Liverpool Road and Glasgow Rd and look at the tower on the right.
It hit just below that.
When I discovered this I had the realization that if it happened today I could see it happen from my kitchen window. Though at the time it was Australia’s worst aviation tragedy sadly these days it doesn’t even sit in the top five. If you include Military related accidents it doesn’t even get in the top fifteen. But it was probably the most significant civil aviation accident in Australia’s history for the far-reaching organisational changes it prompted to make Australia’s airways safer.
 Local aviation historian Macarthur Job has written the definitive book on the subject “Disaster in the Dandenongs” and the site and monument to the crash are accessible via the Kyeema track from Mount Dandenong observatory.

 References: 
 ARGUS 26Oct 1938 
The Age 26 Oct 1938 Wikipedia. 1938 Kyeema crash 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8JlS37Jb9I 
www.marvmelb.blogspot.com.au 
www.spiritsofansett.com

(c) 2014 Danny Nolan Originally published in the Boronia and Basin Community News  August 2014 edition

Art to My Writing - Steven Austin

Over the last few years I have been blessed to have some incredibly talented artists take my writing and transform it into something beyond my expectations. Over the next few posts I'm going to upload some of these artworks with links back to their respective artists.
FOR A LARGER VIEW OPEN  EACH IMAGE IN A NEW WINDOW.

Steven Austin  

Steve Austin also was a major contributor in the second phase of the Game of  Kings.Steve like Peter added other elements not used in the poster roll out but helped enhance the project back story , thus expanding the book.

Steven is a freelance artist from England who draws story boards for film and TV but also draws comics for various publications.

Artist I admire and respect:Steve Austin

When the second phase of the Game of Kings project was realised it was decided that to expand on the original concept would require many more artists. These guys were fans of the project or were admired by the artists from the first phase, usually both. Steve Austin (under Ausven) was one of the first to gleefully accept; along with Peter Fairfax (under the pseudonym Sturstein) they contributed way beyond the call of duty and then some when they combined to panel out some of the story into graphic novel format. Peter deserves his own profile, so more on him later, Steve Austin a likeable English chap with a young family was so enthusiastic and quick with ideas and artwork he almost single handed kept the project exciting for me personally and I’m not drawing a long bow but say Simon was as well.
Since then Steven has managed to place or win in several Red Bubble Competitions where he is a very popular artist.
As a free lance artist he has been showing off his skills on his Facebook page and his dedicated web site and has a growing fan base. Here are some of his drawing that he was trailing for 2000AD and other artworks. Oh and by the way did we mention he does album cover art.(see below)
A great talent that will no doubt be a household name in the future.

 

Zombie Circus EP cover

 Cover for the single by Aussie artist Preston Pierce