Avro Anson Memorial

The Avro Anson Memorial, also known as the RAAF Anson Aircraft Memorial, Air Disaster Memorial, or Mokine Memorial, commemorates four Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airmen killed when their Avro Anson aircraft crashed near Clackline, Western Australia on 9 October 1942. The memorial, assembled by members of the local community in the months following the crash, features a cairn of granite and boulders supporting a jarrah cross. The names and details of the deceased airmen Flying Officer Lynton Birt, Sergeant Geoffrey Debenham, Sergeant Noel Nixon, and Sergeant Kenneth Hugo are carved into the cross. Birt was interred in the Northam Cemetery, and later reinterred in the Perth war cemetery and annex (N.A.8) while the others were buried at Karrakatta Cemetery. Over the years, the memorial was forgotten and lost, overgrown by shrubs and trees. Upon its rediscovery in the early 1980s, the memorial's history and significance were researched, and it was restored in 1984 by volunteers from the Perth branch of the Royal Australian Air Force Association. Since then, the association has held annual memorial services at the site. In 2013, the Northam RSL spent $14,700 on safety and accessibility works, funded by Lotterywest and the Northam RSL.

On 9 October 1942, an Avro Anson aircraft (No. W2262), piloted by Sergeant Geoffrey Debenham and carrying Flying Officer Lynton Birt, Sergeant Noel Nixon, and Sergeant Kenneth Hugo, crashed near Clackline, Western Australia. The airmen, all from 68 Reserve Squadron based at Geraldton, were on a training mission, flying from Cunderdin to Pearce air force base. Partway along what should have been a routine flight, the aircraft crashed and burned, leaving no survivors, and destroying the aircraft.

Kenneth Colin (Les) Hugo was born in Perth, and attended school at Armadale. He went on to study at Perth Technical College, and then worked in the Vacuum Oil Company's Perth office. According to his father, he was a "lover of sport", enjoying cricket, football, swimming and yachting. Hugo enlisted in the air force in 1941, where he was a wireless operator air-gunner. He was 21 at the time of the crash. Lynton Vennel Howard Birt originated from Subiaco, Western Australia. He attended Hale School from 1931 to 1933, where he played cricket and football, and was "above average" academically. Following his schooling, he worked for the English, Scottish and Australian Bank, and continued to play sports, as a wing for the Old Haleians hockey club. At the outbreak of World War II, Birt enlisted in the RAAF, where he eventually became a navigator. He was 25 at the time of the crash. Noel Louis Nixon was the son of Mr. L. W. Nixon of Bundaberg, Queensland. Geoffrey Lancaster Debenham was the son of Mr. P. Debenham of Kempsey, New South Wales. Nixon was 28 and Debenham was 25 years old at the time of the crash.

The Avro Anson crashed soon after 1:00 pm, on private property leased by Mr George Edward Harvey, west of Mokine. Mrs Irene May Harvey (née Marston) saw the aircraft coming in close to the ground, looking like it was going to hit her house. It passed over the building, and beyond nearby trees, before crashing approximately three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) from the homestead. There was a large explosion and rising columns of smoke from that point. Mrs Harvey hurried over to the crash site, but was unable to give any assistance as the wreckage was burning fiercely and machine gun ammunition was continually cooking off. The crash was loud enough to be heard across several miles, and attracted close to fifty people within half an hour. The aircraft had crashed approximately 100 yards (91 m) past a tree into rising ground, in which it gouged 20-yard-long (18 m) trenches and two large holes, exposing boulders

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