MacRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA) was a Western Australian airline that operated between 1927 and 1993. It served a changing roster of destinations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, concentrated on services between Perth and Darwin via towns in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions. After being purchased by Ansett Transport Industries in 1968, MMA grew to become Australia's third-largest airline. It gradually lost its independent identity under Ansett ownership, being eventually rebranded Ansett WA before being entirely subsumed into Ansett Australia in the early 1990s.
History In 1919, Horrie Miller purchased an Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 from the United Kingdom and launched the Commercial Aviation Company, in Rochester, Victoria. On 8 October 1920, he registered the Commercial Aviation Company. In 1927, the Commercial Aviation Company commenced weekly Adelaide to Mount Gambier services with an Airco DH.9.
Early years The initial success of operating the DH.9 to Broken Hill made Miller seek investment to purchase a larger aircraft more suitable for regular airline service.
He approached Macpherson Robertson, who had become a millionaire on the back of his successful MacRobertson's confectionery business and was known as both a philanthropist and a supporter of aviation in Australia.
Robertson agreed to fund the purchase of a de Havilland Giant Moth single-engined eight-passenger aircraft. It would be owned by a new company, MacRobertson-Miller Aviation, formally created in May 1928. Horrie Miller would retain control of Commercial Aviation Limited while receiving a salary and a minority stake in the new MMA. The airline was run out of the MacRobertson's office in Adelaide, supported by corporate headquarters in Melbourne, which provided key administrative and legal abilities in the company's early years.
The Giant Moth aircraft was named Old Gold after one of MacRobertson's most successful chocolate bars. Always with an eye to publicity, Robertson requested that the cabin of Old Gold be filled with MacRobertson confectionery for its delivery flight to Adelaide, which was then distributed to the gathered crowd.
The first scheduled MMA service was from Adelaide to Renmark on 26 April 1928, later joined by flights to Broken Hill, Mount Gambier and Kangaroo Island, with Miller's own DH.9 being used to provide services as demand grew.
To bolster MMA's own capacity, a second aircraft was needed. Miller imported a Fokker Universal from the United States, starting a long association between MMA and the Dutch manufacturer. A flying school was also set up at Mount Gambier, using a de Havilland DH.60 Moth.
Moving to Western Australia In 1934, it was announced that the British and Australian governments would be starting an air mail service between London and Australia. This was flown by Imperial Airways between London and Singapore, and by Qantas between Brisbane, Darwin and Singapore. The Australian government also offered contracts for Australian airlines to operate domestic air mail routes linking state capitals and other key ports throughout the country with this service. These routes would be awarded a government subsidy.
Horrie Miller obtained agreement from MacRobertson that MMA should bid for the service between Perth in Western Australia and Katherine in the Northern Territory.
The MacRobertson's clerical and accounting departments were able to prepare a detailed and attractive bid that won MMA the contract despite having no presence or services in Western Australia. The air mail services were required to start in October 1934.
With the contract agreed, MacRobertson-Miller Aviation left Adelaide and transferred its operational base to Perth. Horrie Miller himself conducted a route survey from Perth, along the coastline of Western Australia, and into the Kimberley as well as setting up agents, offices, and maintenance and fuel support. There was considerable negative feeling in Western Australia about Miller's scheme, as MMA was seen as an 'outsider' displacing the pioneering West Australian Airways of Norman Brearley. After this initial survey, Miller successfully requested that the Western Australia mail contract run to Daly Waters rather than Katherine, due to that port lacking suitable ground facilities and being prone to poor weather.
The service between Perth and Daly Waters was initially operated by a trio of de Havilland Dragon light airliners. Heading north from Perth, the aircraft stopped at Geraldton, Carnarvon, Onslow, Roebourne, Whim Creek, Port Hedland, Broome, Derby, Noonkanbah, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Ord River, Wave Hill, Victoria River and Daly Waters. The return trip called at the same ports. The trip each way took four days, with flying only in the early hours and the morning as hot air in the afternoons and frequent evening thunderstorms made flying too dangerous at other times. This route, and many of these key destinations, would become MMA's main line for the rest of its existence.
A feeder service to cattle stations in the Kimberley, Western Australia was soon started on the Ord River using a de Havilland Fox Moth. By the end of 1934, additional Dragons and Fox Moths were being purchased and shipped from Britain to handle expanding demand. In 1938, MMA acquired new, larger aircraft with better performance and range, including a pair of Lockheed Electras and two four-engined de Havilland Express. The Expresses were obtained following a new agreement between the Australian government, Qantas, and MMA, which would now see MMA's route terminate at Darwin rather than Daly Waters, providing a trueif indirectair service through Western Australia between the capitals.
Post-War and the Douglas DC-3
During World War II, MMA's services to north-western and northern Australia were curtailed, and many of its aircraft were impressed for military service. The Australian government's Department of Civil Aviation controlled the use and allocation of airliners, and several of MMA's fleet were lost in accidents. The DCA purchased a fleet of ex-military Douglas Dakotas for reviving Australian domestic air services after the war, but Macrobertson-Miller Aviation was not initially included in this allocation. After protests, a single C-47 converted to airliner specification was provided and made its first flight from Perth to Derby (via intermediate ports) in November 1945. This aircraft was transferred to TAA in 1947, by which time MacRobertson-Miller had acquired a pair of DC-3s of its own.
MMA would eventually operate nine DC-3s, all of which were ex-military C-47s or C-53s (the latter lacking the reinforced floor and larger cabin door needed for freighter operations).
Surviving Lockheed Electras were operated for a time, but the airline decided to standardise on DC-3s for its main services out of Perth to the Pilbara, Kimberley, and into Darwin. Refurbished ex-military Avro Ansons (six of which were purchased) were employed on the 'station runs' serving cattle stations in the Kimberley out of Darwin and Derby, the Pilbara out of Port Hedland, and the Goldfields out of Kalgoorlie. The Ansons also predominated on what were known as the 'mission runs', started as MMA expanded its operations beyond Darwin into the Northern Territory. These supplied and connected Christian mission stations in Arnhem Land and the Gove Peninsula with the route terminus at Groote Eylandt.
A serious incident early in MMA's post-war era occurred on 2 July 1949. DC-3 VH-MME crashed shortly after takeoff from Perth in the small hours of the morning, with the total loss of the aircraft and all 18 people on board. An investigation by the Department of Civil Aviation, a coroner's inquest, and a court of inquiry all failed to determine a definite cause of the accident, but found several definite and multiple suspected shortcomings in MMA's training, operational, and administrative systems. The most likely cause of the crash was incorrect loading of the aircraft, causing it to be longitudinally unstable, and the flight records of the manifest and load were incomplete. The DCA considered revoking MMA's operational license, but did not proceed after rapid assurances from the airline that new procedures would be implemented. MMA quickly moved to throw off the loosely formulated procedures that had grown up in its early years and during the chaotic and under-regulated war years, and to introduce formal training and checking for pilots who had learnt their trade during wartime operations under military conditions.
Many of MMA's distinctive characteristics were adopted at this time. Its DC-3s were all operated with a polished bare metal finish, which was calculated to reduce operating costs by removing the need to paint the aircraft and saving a small but significant amount of weight (allowing more payload and fuel to be carried). MMA crews were provided with large tins of polish and were expected to keep the aircraft buffed to a sheen during layovers while out on the route. The cleanliness of MMA aircraft, even when operated in remote rural airstrips with minimal protection or facilities, became a notable feature of the airline.
So did its high standards of maintenance and the self-sufficiency of its engineering department. Because of MMA's relative remoteness from the major Australian service hubs in Victoria and New South Wales, and how the airline's route structure could see aircraft flying over from the engineering base in Perth, MMA engineers were, unusually, multi-licensedapprentices were trained in all the various types of aviation engineering (such as airframe, powerplant, electrics, hydraulics, and instrumentation) rather than specialising. MMA engineering also produced a lot of incidental equipment for the airline, including a bespoke form of analog computer for calculating the weight and balance figures for the DC-3s, ground equipment such as portable steps and aircraft turntables and cabin fittings such as food trolleys and hot water vessels. MMA was the first airline to be granted Engineering Design Approval by the Department of Civil Aviation, allowing the airline an unprecedented degree of independence to adapt and modify its aircraft and maintain them with less direct oversighta status granted due to MMA's track record of reliability and fastidious maintenance.
In the 1940s, MMA standardised the registration marks of its fleet, all of which became VH-MMx (i.e., VH-MMA, VH-MMB, VH-MMC, etc.), and its DC-3s were all named for rivers in Western Australia. MacRobertson-Miller furnished its crews with khaki army-style tunics rather than the naval-inspired uniforms favoured by most other airlines. Well into the 1950s, many of the food and drink items on MMA flights continued to come from the MacRobertson's catalogue, reflecting Macpherson Robertson's partnership in the early years of the company and the majority stake in MMA still held by the confectionery company.
In 1955, MacRobertson-Miller Aviation and its only regional competitor, Airlines (WA), merged, with MacRobertson's holding a 62% shareholding of the new company now formally titled MacRobertson Miller Airlines. The merger brought Airlines (WA)'s fleet of de Havilland Doves to MMA, which replaced the Ansons on the short station runs, with the last Anson flight for MMA being made in 1962.
The enlarged MMA inherited Airlines (WA)'s routes to the south and east of Perth to Albany and Esperance and a dense network of 'as required' local services for cattle stations, farms, and settlements in the Wheatbelt. The expanded route also included one of the shortest scheduled airline routes in the worldthe hop to Rottnest Island off the coast at Perth
After this merger, the new MacRobertson Miller Airlines operated a network of more than , from Esperance in Western Australia to Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory.
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