18. Amana Memorial
On Monday 26 June 1950 the worst civil aviation disaster to date in Australia happened near York, Western Australia. An Australian National Airways Skymaster Amana, the flagship of the company’s fleet, crashed and burnt north-west of York, soon after leaving Guildford airport. It came down on an isolated, heavily timbered portion of Mr Roy Inkpen’s 6,000 acre property, 12 miles north-west of York township.
24 passengers and five crew members died instantly in the crash. One passenger survived, but died in hospital a few days later. The City Coroner reported that identification of the bodies would be extremely difficult. Amongst those killed were four adults and an infant who were from the Northam Migrant Camp, a student who had arrived from Singapore the previous day, the managing director of Winterbottom Motor Company, and the Right Rev Charles Herbert Murray, Bishop of the Riverina Diocese in New South Wales.
A funeral for the mass burial of remains not individually identified was held at Karrakatta Cemetery on 3 July 1950.