09 April 2021

The Crate Escape: search for Irishmen who airmailed Brian Robson home

Are you Irish, were you in Australia in 1965 and did you happen to help a homesick Welshman airmail himself home in a wooden box? Brian Robson wants to contact Paul and John - he can't remember their surnames - who helped him get out of Oz.

Brian, from Cardiff, was 19 years old when his two friends helped nail him into a crate so that he could mail himself from Melbourne to London. He couldn't afford the air fare but he was desperate to get home.

The journey proved much more hazardous than he had imagined and almost spelled the end of his life. But he lived to tell an incredible tale.

As a teenager, Brian had taken a job with Victorian Railways on an assisted immigration programme in Australia, but he was deeply unhappy. He couldn't just buy a ticket home - he had committed to spending two years in the country. His travel costs had been paid for by the Australian government and he said he would have had to pay about £800 to reimburse them and fund his way home. "My salary was about £30 a month so there was no way," he said.

Kim & I saw this chap telling his crazy tale on the BBC Breakfast show this morning - & what a tale - I was spellbound! I have placed a pre-release order with Austin Macauley Publishers for his book, can't wait!

www.bbc.co.uk


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