Cunningham, a highly decorated First World War veteran, second lieutenant and hero, who won the Military Cross at Gallipoli for outstanding bravery, was never short of taking risks.

When his miner-father decided to pick-up stumps and head for a little farming area called Mollymook and work in the silica mines at Narrawallee.

Andrew Cunningham MC decided from his fathers property in Queanbeyan, to fly his little four-cylinder engine of 130 HP plane to the township of Ulladulla and visit his parents for a week.

Down to tree-top level and flying towards Braidwood and in the distance huge clouds were billowing up over the Dividing Range, as mist formed in the valleys well above the Budawang ranges with Cunningham amazingly using his school atlas exercise book as a map.

However, he soon realised the book didnt mention the Budawangs as the terrain changed with every kilometre he probably thought at one stage that he was lost.

Then the thick cloud cover gradually started to break-up and up ahead laid the beautiful coastline and after turning north, all the daredevil pilot could remember was his mothers last letter saying, Look out for the boat harbour with a steamship (Narani) loading logs and Ill have all my sheets hanging out on the clothes-line near Collers beach, which is just a bit north of the harbour.

After flying for an hour, the tiny Gypsy Moth began a slow decent.

The cloud was breaking-up and shafts of sunlight lit the scene below, then in another 25 minutes he descended another few hundred metres to see up ahead the tiny boat harbour with a single wharf and a coastal steamer moored, as his mother referred to in her letter.

Now, getting low on fuel, the intrepid war hero had to find somewhere to land his trusty craft and after circling three times around Ulladulla Harbour he endeavoured to land his aeroplane across the main road and west-ward through and between Mrs Greens laneway paddocks (Green Street) and Edith Twynams paddock where Charlie Rankine and Captain Biddulph were laying out a new golf course west-ward, just past of the Ulladulla public school.

On the dirt main road which skirted the harbour were Harry Backhouse and Carl Mitchell with a load of turpentine logs as Cunninghams Moth circled and swung low past Syd Kendalls stables (Ulladulla Post Office site) and crash landed in a cloud of dust with the undercarriage being ripped out of its housing while the wooden propeller was smashed to pieces.

First on the scene was the legendary Sylvester Hopper Robinson, a war veteran himself and a local community legend, who immediately recognised Cunningham and smartly sorted local mechanic Vero Veitch and offsider Billy Cullen to take the plane by horse and open wagon to Veitchs garage (KFC site) later that same afternoon for major repairs.

Within a fortnight week, while his plane was still being repaired, Cunningham spent most of his time at his parents farm, socialising with other local farmers and enjoying lunches, dinners and long afternoons drinking at Hughess pub, mixing with the locals and revisiting his amazing wartime experiences.

Finally, Cunninghams tiny canvas and wire plane was all fixed-up and ready for takeoff thanks to Robinsons mates Veitch and Cullen.

However, the biggest problem now, was how was Cunningham to get his plane airborne again?

After a meeting at Hughes pub in Wason street, the effervescent Robinson asked a few of his mates to help construct a airstrip on the northern head of the harbour.

Council worker Bill Montgomery was asked by Robinson to organise the work and with young Jack and Keith Robinson and their mates the powerful Schultz boys with most of the towns menfolk involved, the working party used horse-drawn chains, saws, axes and shovels to remove stumps, trees and rocks to create the airstrip.

Two days later, Billy Cullen pulled the chocks away in front of large crowd of local citizens as Cunninghams plane shot forward like a rocket and took off, slightly dipping, then accelerating upwards and circling twice around the harbour to say thanks to the local population, then setting a course for Pigeon House mountain and back home to Queanbeyan.