in 1919 there was a £10,000 prize offered to the first Australians to fly from England to Australia in less than 30 days. Of the 6 entries that started the race, brothers Keith and Ross Smith accomplished it in 28 days, in a Vickers Vimy bomber

In May 1919, the Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Defense in consultation with the Royal Aero Club, stated that valid aircrews must all be Australian nationals, the aircraft must have been constructed in the British Empire, and the journey must be completed within 720 consecutive hours  before midnight on 31 December 1920. 

The reporting points were at Alexandria and Singapore, and final destination in the region of Darwin.

https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+18/1

As few people owned aircraft capable of such a flight, AND had the financial ability, the airplane companies sponsored teams. The flight also carried the first overseas airmail to Australia.

Vickers entered a converted Vimy bomber (G-EAOU) (the registration being whimsically said to stand for "God 'elp all of us"), crewed by Captain Ross Smith with his brother Lieutenant Keith Smith as co-pilot and mechanics Sergeant Wally Shiers and Sergeant Jim Bennett.

Ross Smith was one of Australia’s most decorated airmen of WWI. He was even Lawrence of Arabia’s pilot!

 

The Vimy flew via Lyon France, Rome Italy, Cairo Egypt, Damascus Syria, Basra Iraq, Karachi Delhi and Calcutta India, Akyab and Rangoon racetrack in Burma, to Bangkok in Siam, Jakarta and Surabaya  Indonesia, then to Singapore.

Keep in mind, there was no guarantee of fuel at landing, or food, or radio comms, or even a landing strip!  This entire flight was dead reckoning navigation, with a compass... and wind speed indicator. No altimeter, no auto pilot

From Singapore the route ran through Java to Uching, at Sourabaya, and to Anatopo in Timor, the last stopping place, 500 miles from Darwin.

The Smith brothers' flight was not without problems, in Surabaya the aircraft was bogged to the axles.

Locals from the nearby village dismantled their huts and began to lay the bamboo and reed mats on the field. One day and many mats later, G-EAOU headed down the 1,200-foot runway on the home stretch.

But far worse awaited them in Australia. 

In Cairo, following a safe crossing of the Mediterranean, a crack opened up in one of the cooling water pipes and had to be sealed. More repairs followed in Iraq. The reward was a few days of fair weather and a chance to soar above the Taj Mahal.

The trip from Darwin to Sydney took almost twice as long as the flight to Australia. The Vimy was forced down at Cobbs Creek, with a split propeller.

 In 52 degree heat, the mechanics toiled for three days to make repairs, gluing wood splinters into the shattered end and reshaping it using glass from a broken bottle. They made another unscheduled landing near Charleville, when their out-of-balance port engine exploded. This repair alone took 50 days.

Before the crew were allowed to leave the machine, they had to be examined by the Quarantine officer

One of the mechanics summed up his views of the journey as a whole by saying that he would not do it gain for £100,000. "Believe me," he said, "It was no joy ride. The engines went well, but of course, we had to work practically every night at one thing or another. However, it's all right now."

Shiers and Bennett received the new Air Force Medal bar and became honorary lieutenants.

 The prize money was shared between the Smith brothers and the two mechanics. The Smith brothers each received a knighthood for this exploit.

After arriving in Australia, the Smiths, Bennett and Shiers flew to Point Cook, Victoria. 

On 19 March 1920 it was formally handed over from Vickers to Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, on behalf of the Commonwealth. The handover caused something of an outcry, Hughes apparently being the only member of the Government who was aware of the arrangement! 

The Prime Minister immediately gave the crew permission to fly the aircraft to their home town of Adelaide. In 1921 the aircraft was entered on the RAAF Register as A5-1 (the only Vimy to officially serve with the RAAF). 

At the time, the flight from London to Australia was the longest in the history of the world

https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/aviation-australia/vickers-vimy#

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_England_to_Australia_flight

https://www.smh.com.au/national/from-the-archives-1919-first-flight-from-england-to-australia-20191107-p53895.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/albums/72157712126795033

https://australiapostcollectables.com.au/articles/commemorating-the-first-england-to-australia-flight

https://vwma.org.au/explore/memorials/5

https://www.adelaideairport.com.au/vickers-vimy/discover/the-vickers-vimy/

On 8 January 1920, Lt Ray Parer, with co-pilot Lt John McIntosh, were sponsored by millionaire Peter Dawson, a whisky manufacturer, who financed the purchase of the machine and much of the journey. They completed the flight, the first by a single-engined machine, in an epic 206 days later on 2 August 1920, earning Parer the nickname "Battling Ray". 

Although outside the time limit, the crew was awarded a consolation prize of £A1,000.

They were the only other aircraft that completed the trip.

The DH.9 has been restored and placed on display at the Australian War Memorial at Canberra. 

Only two original Vimy aircraft remain in the world – Alcock and Brown’s Vimy at the British Science Museum and the Smith crew’s Vimy at Adelaide Airport.

in 1994, the flight was recreated http://www.vimy.org/flights/flights2.htm with a new built Vimy.

Unlike the 1919 Australian team, it took hours planning routes that skirted restricted areas of the Middle East. Deviating from the 1919 flight path, they avoided Syria, Iraq, and Iran and instead flew through Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. Reaching Karachi, Pakistan, was trouble free, but border conflicts temporarily prevented the Vimy from crossing into India. Due to an outbreak of the plague in India, Myanmar denied permission to enter the country. Defying the authorities, Peter and Lang turned off the Vimy’s radio and landed in Yangon anyway.

Over Sumatra, dense smoke from slash and burn fires forced them to fly only 200 feet above the jungle so they could see the ground. Even worse, the right engine acted up again, then stopped completely. The Vimy was unable to maintain height on one engine, and was brought down in a rice field, just hundreds miles from where the original G-EAOU sunk in the mud. 

The circumstances were uncannily similar to the situation confronted by the Smith brothers. The local farmers helped to construct an airfield. A new engine and other parts were flown in on a twin-engine plane lent by the Australian Army. Six days after the crew faced disaster, the Vimy was again on its way to Australia.