William Ewart Hart often referred to as Billy, was born on the 20 April 1885 in Parramatta. His birth was registered as taking place in the Hart family home on Darcy Street Parramatta. His father William Henry Hart was a local timber merchant born in Parramatta thirty years earlier. His mother Maria Alice Hart née Gazzard was also born in Parramatta in 1862. William and Maria were married in Parramatta in 1880 and Billy was their third child. William and Maria went on to have twelve children together. Billy’s grandfather whose name was also William Hart established the timber business Hart and Sons which later became Hart Hitchcock and Co. which Billy’s father became a senior partner of. Hart and Sons was dissolved in 1894 to become Hart, Hitchcock and Co. Billy’s father sold his share in the company in 1911.
Billy went to school in Parramatta, which at the time was known as Parramatta South Superior Public School, but is now Arthur Phillip High School. After completing school at the age of 16 he began his apprenticeship with the Parramatta dentist Mr. Maxwell, and became a registered dentist at the age of 21. Billy practised as a dentist until hours before his death from a heart attack in Stuart Lane off Bathurst Street, Sydney, on the 29 July 1943.
In the years Billy practised as a dentist in Parramatta he had surgeries in many locations, including in his home in Wentworth Street; in 1915-1916 on the corner of Phillip and Church Streets opposite the former Parramatta Branch of the A.N.Z. Bank; and in 1917 he was working from the Parramatta Town Hall Chambers. Billy also practised dentistry in Newcastle, Wyalong and then largely in Sydney.
Billy had a long-standing interest in fast cars and bikes and this led to an interest in aviation. In 1911 there were very few aeroplanes in Australia. On the 18 March 1910 Erlich Weiss under the name of Harry Houdini had flown for one minute in a Boxkite in Victoria marking the first powered flight in Australia. Just over a year later Billy bought a Bristol Box-kite aircraft for £1333 from Joseph Hammond, who was touring Australia as a demonstration pilot for the British & Colonial Aeroplane Co. Ltd. He received a few flying lessons from Hammond’s mechanic in September 1911. A few weeks later Billy’s plane was severely damaged by a storm and it was completely rebuilt at his father’s timber business using Australian timbers and the family’s expertise. On the 3 November Billy flew this plane solo around Penrith. His first record flight was on the 4 November 1911 from Penrith to Parramatta Park – a distance of about 29 kilometres. This flight took 19 minutes and his aircraft reached an altitude of 3000 feet. He had his younger brother Jack as a passenger. The purpose of the trip was to have breakfast with his father who lived not far from Parramatta Park in Wentworth Street. According to his youngest sister Esma “Essie” decades later, “people rushed out in their pyjamas to welcome him”. This flight was the first cross-country flight recorded in Australian aviation history.
Billy Hart landing in Parramatta Park, 1911. Image Courtesy Mr Robert Shayler, donor. Source: Parramatta Park Trust Collection
On the 16 November Billy completed tests under the supervision of the Australian Aerial League which had been created to test and issue licences to aspiring aviators. On the 18 November Billy flew solo from Penrith to the Royal Agricultural Society’s Showground in Sydney in 55 minutes which was the longest flight recorded in Australia at that point.
Billy invited his sister Cassie to fly with him on the 1 December 1911, making her the first Australian woman to fly with an Australian aviator. On the 9 December 1911 Billy was awarded the Aerial League Certificate No. 1. This was the first licence to be issued in Australia making Billy the first man to hold a registered Australian aviator’s licence.
On the 6 January 1912 Billy crashed his plane at the train line between Mt Druitt and Rooty Hill. This was recorded as being Australia’s first plane crash. In the following month on the 9 February 1912 Billy was celebrated in the Parramatta Park Ampitheatre with the Parramatta Mayor Walter Francis Jago addressing the audience and presenting Billy with a purse of sovereigns.
Billy was also the winner of Australia’s first air race from Botany to Parramatta in 1912 – a distance of 32 kilometres. He completed the distance in 23 minutes and won the race. He also opened an Aviation School in Penrith, taking on student aviators. On the 30 June Billy flew from Parramatta Park to Richmond. He had intended to fly the former mayor Alderman Jago - who had become a firm supporter of Billy - to fulfill a longstanding promise, but the conditions looked dangerous so Billy flew solo.
In August 1912, Billy constructed a two-seat monoplane which he successfully tested at Wagga Wagga, but narrowly escaped death in it in a serious accident in Richmond on the 4 September 1912. He endured multiple fractures and a fractured skull and lapsed into a coma for three weeks. He was in rehabilitation in Windsor Hospital for two months and in recovery for nearly a year. This accident effectively ended Billy’s aviation career.
After his accident Billy returned to dentistry. On the 14 January 1916 Billy enlisted in the First World War as a lieutenant in the No 1 Squadron. He embarked with the Australian Flying Corps B Flight from Melbourne aboard HMAT (A67) on the 16 March 1916. He went to Egypt and Britain as an instructor and contributed to the war effort by training a significant amount of fighter pilots. Billy was diagnosed with epilepsy which was most likely the result of the severe head injury endured in his serious aviation accident in 1912. He was classified as medically unfit and returned to Australia on the 24 June 1916 and was discharged from duties on the 11 September 1916.
Portrait of Lieutenant W. E. Hart, Australian Flying Corps. Source: Australian War Memorial
On his return to Australia Billy quickly returned to practising dentistry. Throughout his entire career Billy had an interest in the use of gas in dentistry, and was an innovator in the field. Not long after his return from the First World War he unnecessarily extracted his sister Esme’s two front teeth under the use of gas to prove a point to his friend. The work would most likely have taken place in the Wentworth Street surgery, which was also Billy’s home.
Billy married Thelma Claire Cock at St. Phillip’s Anglican Church, Sydney on the 10 August 1929. They had one son William Hart Jr. In the 1930s Billy visited Britain and America where he observed the latest developments in dentistry and introduced some of these technologies in his surgeries in Australia.
Billy was cremated at Rockwood Crematorium on the 31 July 1943 with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flying overhead in salute. The Air Force Association in its minutes recorded that he was a “respectful, courageous pioneer, soldier, airman, loyal friend and good citizen, lovable personality and gallant gentleman”. A memorial to William Ewart Hart was unveiled in Parramatta Park in 1963 which the NSW State Heritage Register describes as being of “great cultural significance commemorating an enterprising pioneer of Australian aviation”.
The memorial is inscribed:
IN THE FIELD OPPOSITE THIS MEMORIAL, ON 4TH NOVEMBER 1911 WILLIAM EWART HART A NATIVE OF THIS CITY, A PIONEER OF AVIATION AND THE HOLDER OF THE FIRST PILOT'S LICENSE ISSUED BY THE AERO LEAGUE OF AUSTRALIA, LANDED HIS AEROPLANE AFTER A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT, THE FIRST IN AUSTRALIA, FROM PENRITH. PARRAMATTA IS PROUD TO HONOUR THE NAME OF ITS HERO WHO ALSO SERVED HIS COUNTRY AS AN OFFICER OF THE RFC IN THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-18. HE DIED ON THE 29TH JULY, 1943.
Caroline Finlay, Regional Studies Facilitator and Neera Sahni, Research Services Leader, Parramatta Heritage Centre, City of Parramatta, 2021
References
Advertising (1917, July 21). The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article86090002
A Fly on Monday. (1912, July 3). The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article86137211
Arthur Phillip High School. (n.d.). William Ewart Hart, 1885-1943: a short biography. Parramatta: Arthur Phillip High School
Australian Dictionary of Biography. (1983). Hart, William Ewart (Bill) (1885–1943). Retrieved from http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hart-william-ewart-bill-6592
Australian War Memorial. (2020). Portrait of Lieutenant (Lt) W E Hart, Australian Flying Corps. Retrieved from https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1044302
Edwards, G.L. (2015). William Ewart Hart, An Aviator’s Life Discovered in a Scrapbook. Carlingford: Greg Edwards, pp. 6, 124.
Family Notices (1885, April 25). The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28361247
Flier’s feats in aviation history (1987, May 20). The Parramatta Advertiser, p.11.
Hart-Johnson, Phil. (1994). Billy Hart: Australia’s First Licence Pilot: down under’s greatest pioneer aviator also known as Parramatta’s flying dentist. Lismore: Northair Company.
Hart, William Ewart (VF0448) Retrieved from Heritage Centre Research Library Vertical Files Collection
Kass, T., Liston, C., McClymont, J. (1996). Parramatta, A Past Revealed. Sydney: Parramatta City Council.
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. (2011). The Parramatta flying dentist: a model story. Retrieved from https://maas.museum/inside-the-collection/2011/11/04/the-parramatta-flying-dentist-a-model/
NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. (2003). Billy Hart memorial. Retrieved from https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=4681100
Parramatta District Honouring Their Aviator. (1912, February 9). The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15308912
Pioneer Pilots Death (1943, July 30). The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17858244