Such is Life!

The cream of South Australian skydiving are pictured here in 1964 at Whyalla, home of the old Spencer Gulf Skydivers, run by Trevor Burns.

But what happened to many of these young, would-be adventurers in later life makes interesting reading.

Standing at the rear (from left) are:

Trevor Burns
Area Safety Officer and later National Safety Officer for the Australian Parachute Federation; editor and publisher of Australian Skydiver magazine; APF Board member and Inspector of Parachuting for the Federal Department of Transport, also responsible for a number of other air sports.

Laurie Trotter
A skilled and highly respected jumper.
-- more detail to come --

Roy Butson
-- more detail to come --

Brian Brown
Later a helicopter gunship pilot in Vietnam and then a Mirage fighter pilot. (See the extended interview with Bomber Brown elsewhere on this site.)

Noel Weckert
Trevor’s “number two” in running Spencer Gulf Skydivers, who, with his wife Sophie (also a jumper), was murdered on the roadside while driving from Townsville to Rockhampton to judge at a parachuting competition in March 1975.

Noel was found slumped and still seatbelted, in the front seat of his Toyota Celica. He had been shot dead through the head with a .22 calibre rifle, having been woken by his assailants who demanded money. Later Court reports record that Noel told them to “go to the shithouse.”

Sophie’s body, also shot through the head, was found, two weeks later, in a creek, where she had fled from her attackers.

Two itinerant carnival roustabouts were tracked down, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders.

Bob Rowe
-- details to come --

Fred Turner
One of two fatalities on a notorious, illegal night jump at the 1975 Nationals at Rylestone, NSW. This incident rocked the sport and was the subject of embarassing attention from the Federal Parliament.
For more information on this incident see this article from Australian Skydiver magazine.


Sitting (from left):

Hans Wochnik
-- more detail to come --

Richard (Rick) Abraham
Killed in action as a National Serviceman in Vietnam in July, 1969 while serving as a Lance Corporal with 9RAR.
Rick was killed by the enemy during the withdrawal from a night ambush position during Operation Matthew in South Vietnam.

Carola Fritzsche (later Hume)

After moving back to Sydney Carola wanted to join the NSW School of Parachuting run by Andy Case at Camden. However, he required parents' permission for jumping if you were under 21 – she was 19. Her parents refused, so she took up flying, progressing through various aspects of general aviation from flying instructing, charter work, corporate pilot, chief pilot, night freight on MU2B’s & Learjet.
Her adopted-out daughter Jan Heylen, whom Carola found some 27 years later, was also a skydiver & had about 1,300 jumps.  She started jumping aged 16 in the early 1980s, coincidentally she is also pictured in the book Falling for a Sport pages 146 & 148 the grand prix relative work squad.  Carola now has three generations of jumpers in the family, with her 16 year old granddaughter recently doing her first tandem in 2018.

Max Evans
-- more detail to come --

John Favell
He was Carola’s boyfriend at the time and died in a motor cycle accident in Whyalla not long after this photo was taken.

Keith Wilson
Went on to become Mayor of Whyalla.

Joe Larkin
Joe ended up in the Congo as a mercenary working for Colonel "Mad" Mike Hoare and was executed there after stealing what was reported to be a DC3 load of gold.
He was a talented jumper and involved in numerous early record attempts.

There still a few gaps in this story and I'm still chasing the survivors down – but Trevor Burns and Brian Brown will certainly be at the SASPC 50th celebrations and, hopefully, we'll locate some more from this photo.

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