22Disaster Gorge 1957
The flight to Disaster Gorge was a milk run to every populated dot on the West Australian map. Fortunately, for the passengers, there were not many dots despite the Commonwealth government’s ‘populate or perish’ policy. Neil Smith and Stanley Carter used it to visit some of the other mining towns in the state. Dr Smith found it exhilarating, but the same could not be said for Dr Mitchell Frosby and the V&L Ltd industrial hygienist, Gary Crick, who went with him. Packed like sardines into the little twin prop plane, the two battled the horrors of claustrophobia, aerophobia and acrophobia throughout the journey. The timing of their arrival to Disaster Gorge was far from ideal.
The plane entered the Disaster Gorge region in a dust storm. “This may feel a bit strange!”
