A friend of mine was a member of an expedition that climbed Ball's Pyramid (~12nm SE of Lord Howe Island) in 1968/1969. In talking with him recently he recalls flying to Lord Howe from Sydney in a Sunderland (or at least so he believes), but isn't certain now whether it was a chartered flight, or if they were passengers on a regular service.
I see
has some interesting footage that suggests it could have been a regular service, as does
this site. However I wonder if anyone here is able to fill in more detail - or better still has any recollection of this particular trip?
Out of interest I came across mention of said friend in Dick Smith's book
"Balls Pyramid: Climbing the World’s Tallest Sea Stack, by Dick Smith, 2015". In that there is a recounting by John Davis of something that my friend is meant to have done - except he has a completely different recollection!
I have been ribbing him about this, but sadly John was victim of a helicopter accident and is no longer with us, so cannot settle the issue.
Dick Smith , if you should read this by any chance, do you recall when you got that piece from John? If it was shortly after the trip then one might suppose his recollection could be more accurate than one 53 years later, or at least that's a line I could follow
