Des Stanton - a pilot with history

Ethel Stanton married James Porter in 1911, and after her father's death they took over running the stanton family property, where we now have Minippi Parklands.

Their second child, Stan Porter, grew up loving planes. As a boy he rode to Eagle Farm for a joyride with Kingsford Smith in the Southern Cross. At the age of thirty-two he took flying lessons and in 1947 he bought his own plane and made an airstrip on their land.

In 1954 Stan Porter crashed into Bulimba Creek with his two sons on board. They had been scattering the ashes of local identity,Tom Kelly, over the Kelly quarry. Stan and one of the boys, Keith, were killed, while Des was rescued from the tail of the plane.

The surviving son, Des, later bought one of his father's old De Havilland Dragons. On October 1, 2012, Des, with his wife and four friends, were returning from a vintage aircraft show at Monto, when they crashed into a hillside.  Tragically, all six of them died.