VH-UGX  de Havilland D.H.60X Moth                  (c/n 425(

                            

                                 Originally owned by O.B. Hall and D.G. Officer of Bellevue Hill, NSW, this Moth was acquired,
                                 in January 1930, by Hart Aircraft Service Pty Ltd (a broker?).  It was then sold to the Central
                                 Australian Gold Exploration Co as a replacement for VH-UMR ('Golden Quest') which had
                                 crashed some 200 miles west of Alice Springs in August of 1930.  -UGX was named 'Golden
                                 Quest 2' .    The company had been formed to specifically search for an alleged reef of gold
                                 which Harold Bell Lasseter claimed to have found on the western edge of the McDonald Ranges.
                                 The aerial search was less than successful (pilot W.L. Pittendrigh got lost trying to find the base
                                 camp, and was forced to land, nearly perishing for lack of water).   Lasseter himself left the base
                                  camp with 7 camels on 15th. September 1930, heading SW in search of the reef that he had
                                  claimed to have seen from the air in Golden Quest 2.   He perished in the desert after his camels
                                  bolted.  For more details on this story of Australian exploration go to
                                                             .  http://www.duckdigital.net/FOD/FOD0499.html
                                  Anyway, in May 1931 VH-UGX was sold off to Adastra Airways of Mascot and then, three
                                  months later to J.N.M. Weir of Sydney    When its CofR lapsed in 1932 it was fitted with a
                                  Gipsy II engine before being renewed.    Sold again in January 1934 to D.L. Rawnsley, it was
                                  repatriated in July of that year back to the U.K. becoming G-ACXF.