Bert Hinkler The Most Daring Man in the World

By Grantlee Kieza

He's all but been lost from history but once upon a time, Bert Hinkler, a small, unprepossessing man from Bundaberg was feted as one of the most daring aviators in the world. Mussolini's favourite pilot, Hinkler was an adventurer who along with early pioneers flew single handed across countries, continents and oceans - often with nothing more than a lunchbox by his side to sustain him. Whether as an aerial showman or as a World War I fighter pilot, Hinkler's exploits thrilled the world, and drew massive crowds, and in his time he enjoyed the fame and adulation of his peers like Charles Kingsford Smith and Amelia Earhart. But behind the headlines was a more private - and more complex man, who juggled two relationships with two different women on two continents.