If Australia’s political scene since 2010 appears tumultuous, with Prime Minister Gillard clinging to power by the skin of her teeth in a hung Parliament, it is nothing compared to what happened in Canberra at the beginning of World War II.

On 13 August 1940, while England’s skies were buzzing with German fighters attempting to prepare the way for a Nazi invasion, a beautiful and peaceful winter’s morning dawned over Canberra, some 12,000 miles away from the European war.

From early in the day, Prime Minister Robert Menzies was in his Parliament House office preparing for a cabinet meeting. Elevated to the nation’s top job just over a year earlier, Menzies felt quietly confident about winning the next general election, which was due before the end of 1940.

However, the prime minister had an Achilles’ heel; he had not volunteered for active service during World War I. And it was members of his own parliamentary team who publicly sniped at him about this, with one senior colleague effectively accusing him of cowardice.   

So Menzies eagerly awaited the arrival of a VIP flight from Melbourne that morning, carrying three of his closest cabinet colleagues. All of them were distinguished World War I veterans. Whenever Menzies’ party room critics attacked him for failing to serve, it was these ministers – Geoffrey Street, James Fairbairn and Henry Gullett – who sprang to his defence.

Then, just after 11 am, a knock came on Menzies’ door and he was confronted by the awful news that the VIP plane had crashed near Canberra Airport, incinerating all on board. Adding to Menzies’ distress was widespread speculation that it was Air Minister Fairbairn – rather that the plane’s pilot, Bob Hitchcock – who was at the controls.

Rather than hold three by-elections, Menzies decided to bring the general election forward. But still deeply distressed by his colleagues’ deaths, he campaigned unevenly. And Opposition Leader John Curtin won enough seats to create a hung Parliament. The balance of power was now held by two independents, Arthur Coles and Alex Wilson – Coles had won Henty, the seat which made vacant by Gullett’s death.

For as long as Menzies remained prime minister, Coles and Wilson were content to back him on the floor of the House. However, Menzies’ party room critics continued their relentless campaign to destabilise his leadership, centred on his failure to serve in World War I. Without the support of Street, Fairbairn and Gullett, Menzies gradually lost heart, eventually stepping down as prime minister in August 1941.

Accusing Menzies’ own party room of ‘lynching’ their leader, a furious Arthur Coles bided his time, as the new prime minister, Arthur Fadden, prepared his 1941–42 budget for Parliament. And when a month later John Curtin moved that this budget be reduced by one pound, Coles led Wilson across the floor to back Curtin, thereby bringing down the government. 

Despite all the political ructions in Canberra today, it is unlikely that the fate of the Gillard Government will be decided like this, on the floor of the House. And so, for now, the political fallout from the crash of that VIP flight in 1940 will continue to occupy a unique place in Australia’s political history.

Andrew Tink is the author of Air Disaster Canberra: The plane crash that destroyed a government, available now fromNewSouth.