Captain Harry Butler Memorial

In a glass-fronted hangar on the edge of Minlaton's main street sits a small, scarlet aeroplane with an outsized story. The Red Devil is a Bristol M1C monoplane, delivered to Britain's Royal Flying Corps in February 1918 — and of the roughly 200 built, it is the only one left in the world.

Its pilot was Captain Harry Butler, the local farm boy who became a celebrated First World War flying instructor and came home a hero. On 6 August 1919 he flew this aircraft from Adelaide across Gulf St Vincent to his home town — about 108 kilometres in 27 minutes — carrying a bag of mail and making the first airmail flight across water in the Southern Hemisphere. Crowds reportedly in the thousands met him in the paddocks outside Minlaton.

The aircraft was brought back to Minlaton and unveiled in a purpose-built memorial in 1958; it has since been carefully restored and re-housed to protect it from the sun. It's free to view at any time through the big windows, and the Minlaton Museum nearby keeps a room of Butler memorabilia that fills out the story.