Man who shipped himself to Wales from Australia in a crate searching for Irish friends who helped him

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

Brian Robson, 75, from Cardiff, was 19-years-old and working in Melbourne for Victorian Railways when he became homesick.

Mr Robson was in the country on an assisted immigration programme in 1964, which meant if he returned home early he would have to repay around £700, according to the Irish Times.

He was earning just £40 a month and so hatched a plan ship himself home via air-freight.

Mr Robson had made friends with two Irish men at work and seconded their help 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.’ And 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. Paul and John helped Mr Robson into the box, along with his suitcase and pillows and nailed it shut.

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.

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 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.

He wrote to them when he returned home but did not receive a reply.

“I did try a couple of times, I think, and of course we didn’t have (the) internet in those days, so from that day to this I’ve never spoken to them. They were the last people I spoke to in Australia before the crate was sealed shut," he told the Irish Times.

“I’ve got no idea what happened to them. I would love to hear what happened after I left."