Welshman who fled Australia in a crate searches for accomplices

A WELSH man who shipped himself home from Australia in the 1960s has launched an appeal to find two Irish men who helped seal him inside a crate.

Brian Robson, 75, from Cardiff, was 19 and working in Melbourne for Victorian Railways, but became homesick.

Mr Robson was in the country on an assisted immigration programme in 1964, making him what was known as a ‘Ten Pound Pom’, which meant if he returned home early he would have to repay around £700, according to the Irish Times. He was earning £40 a month and so hatched a plan to ship himself home via air-freight.

Mr Robson had made friends with two Irish men at work who helped to carry out the plan. “I’m 99 per cent sure that they were called Paul and John,” he told the Irish Times.

“Paul really was 100 per cent against it … but John said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll persuade him.’ So, they both went ahead and helped.” He purchased a wooden crate the size of a mini-fridge and booked a shipment with Qantas airline. The pair helped Mr Robson into the box, along with his suitcase and pillows and nailed it shut.

The flight was expected to take 36 hours and arrive in London, but four days later he landed in Los Angeles. He was investigated by the FBI, but was later released and flown home first class by Pan Am. Mr Robson has now written a book, The Crate Escape, detailing the journey but has been unable to track down his Irish friends.

“I’ve got no idea what happened to them. I would love to hear what happened after I left,” he told the Irish Times. A report by Reuters from May 1965 shows Mr Robson had labelled the contents of his box “a computer”.

The journey was “quite a horrific experience”, he said, and despite also labelling the crate “this side up” at one point he was flipped upside and left standing on his head for a day.

Mr Robson said he wrote to his two friends when he returned home, but did not receive a reply.

‘I’ve got no idea what happened to my friends who helped. I would love to hear what happened after I left’