Departures of note

Alister Murdoch enlisted in the Air Force on 10 December 1930, completed pilot training the following year and was commissioned in 1932. In December 1935, Flying Officer Murdoch was selected for an RAAF rescue mission for explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and his pilot Herbert Hollick‑Kenyon, who were presumed lost in the Antarctic. Flying a de Havilland Gipsy Moth, Murdoch located Hollick‑Kenyon near the Bay of Whales; Hollick‑Kenyon then led the search party to Ellsworth, who protested that he was not lost and did not need rescuing.

After the rescue, Murdoch was posted to England in 1936–37 for a long‑navigation course at RAF Manston and attachment with No. 114 Squadron, returned to Australia, married Florence Miller on 27 December 1937, and helped inaugurate a nine‑month long‑navigation instruction course in June 1938.