Gugeri was at the scene of the X-36 landing soon after the event.
He was a young ranch-hand at the time on Anna Plains station.
Glenroy Station
Derby, 6728
1st December 1980
Dear Mr. Gajda,
Your letter of the 19th Nov to hand, afraid I can't help you
much, as far as I know there was only the one plane came down
& it was then set alight - a Dornier in the Anna Plains
area.
It came from Batavia, Java and was heading for Broome but got off course, because they were afraid to rev one of
the engines which was new, this is what they told me, eventually
ran out of petrol & had to come down, not knowing where
they were a dark night, was a pleasant surprise at daylight
to find the beach 1/2 mile away. & when the tide went
out the flying boat sat on the mud, so they went ashore about
40 people all told on board, a Russian by the name of Petsu
was the Commander he had his Dutch wife with him & a Dutch
man named Hubinks was second in command. & his wife, all
the rest were crew & people getting away ahead of the
Japs.
Jamie Woods was was a pilot with M.M.A.
He saw them first & circled while they wrote on
the beach what they needed, then he landed at Anna Plains
& told us the story, collected water & the things
they were short of & flew me down to see where they
were & drop the odds & ends, I took the hitch
down that afternoon & brought the old people, &
women back to the homestead.
I will never forget
that big three engine flying boat anchored out from
the beach the tide was in & it was afloat It had
three twin row Pratt & Whitney radial engines.
When I went back for the rest of the people
in the morning they had packed mattresses & anything else
that would burn on the plane & covered them with Lube
oil & fired a flare into it, the tide was out at the time
& the engines were tipped out & all the front of the
plane was burnt, But the body and tail section was unharmed,
I could have cryed when I saw what they had done to destroy
such a lovely machine, They said they were following instructions,
not to leave anything that could be used by the enemy.
Six weeks later Major Mitchell & his
guerilla group came to give all station people arms grenades
etc & show them how to use them & advise us what
to do in the event of an invasion, he was interested in the
20mm cannon that was on the Flying Boat: in the meantime there
had been a cyclone, after travelling the beach for 40 miles
in a jeep we never saw a sign of the plane except a gun turret
we picked it up, don't know where it is now, I have never
been along the beach at dead low water springs tides, so can't
say if any wreckage, all I know is it is not where it was
burned, Which is about 1/2 mile south of Ocean Wind Mill,
which is in the sand hills as far a I can remember, about
a mile south of One Tree Government Well which is approx 15
miles from Homestead. Don't know if this information will
be any use to you, is such a long time ago wouldn't count
on finding anything.
Yours Sincerely
L Gugeri
And in the margins of page one he wrote:
PS I suggest if you are going to look for the flying boat,
you drive south along the beach starting at the One Tree Government
well, at low water Equatorial Top spring tides, if there is
anything there you are sure to see it. Four wheel drive vehicle
needed, & don't stop for any legnth of time on wet sand
or vehicle will sink Tide table used to be available at shipping
Offices, possible still is. L.G.
