The Welshman who mailed himself back home from Australia in a crate

Having just arrived in Australia from Wales, teenage Brian Robson quickly realized he had made a huge mistake by emigrating to the other side of the world.

Sadly, the 19-year-old, plagued by homesickness, didn’t have the funds to cover the costs of abandoning the assisted passage program he came with in 1964, nor a return flight back to Wales.

With few options left, Robson, from Cardiff, devised a daring plan to sneak aboard a plane in a tiny crate and travel home in the cargo hold.

More than five decades after his perilous journey made headlines across the globe, Robson is now trying to track down his old friends John and Paul – two Irishmen who secured the crate and sent him on his way.

“The last time I spoke to John and Paul was when one of them knocked on the side of the crate and asked ‘You OK?’” he recalls to Dinogo Travel. “I replied ‘yes,’ and they wished me ‘Good luck.’ I’d love to meet them again.”

Thinking outside the box

A year or so before he decided to mail himself back to Wales, Robson had been working as a bus conductor in Wales when he applied for a position with the Victorian Railways, the main railway operator in Australia’s Victoria state at the time.

Just after turning 19, he embarked on a long flight across the globe to begin his new life in Melbourne, stopping in Tehran, New Delhi, Singapore, Jakarta, and Sydney along the way.

“It was one hell of a journey,” Robson confesses. “But the trip out was easier than the return.”

Upon reaching the Australian city, the Welshman found the hostel assigned to him to be “a filthy, rat-infested dump.”

Even though he hadn’t started his job yet, Robson immediately decided that he didn’t want to remain in Australia.

“Once I made up my mind, nothing was going to change it,” he reflects. “I was determined to return home.”

He claims to have worked for the rail company for about six or seven months before quitting both the job and his accommodation.

Robson then spent some time exploring the Australian outback before returning to Melbourne and securing a job at a papermill.

However, he never quite adapted to life in Australia and was still determined to leave. The only issue was paying back the Australian government for the cost of his flight, plus he’d need to save for his return ticket.

Feeling disheartened, Robson decided to revisit the hostel he had first stayed in to see if anything had changed. It was there he met John and Paul, two newcomers to Australia.

The three quickly became friends and later attended a trade fair where they came across a booth for Pickfords, a UK-based moving company.

The sign read, ‘We can move anything anywhere.’ And I thought, ‘Maybe they could move us too.’

Although Robson initially made the comment in jest, the idea began to linger in his mind.

The great crate escape

The following day, he visited the Melbourne office of Australian airline Qantas to learn the procedure for shipping a box overseas, noting the size and weight limits, the necessary paperwork, and whether the fee could be paid on delivery.

After gathering all the details, he returned to the hostel and informed John and Paul that he had found a solution to his dilemma.

“They asked, ‘Have you come into some money or something?’” he recalls. “I told them, ‘No. I’ve figured out a way. I’m going to ship myself. And Paul said, ‘Hold on, I’ll go buy the stamps.’”

According to Robson, when he fully explained his plan, Paul thought he was crazy, but John was a bit more laid-back about it.

“We spent three days discussing it, and in the end, I had both of them on board with the idea,” he remembers.

Robson then purchased a wooden crate measuring 30 x 26 x 38 inches and spent at least a month carefully planning with his two friends.

They made sure there was enough space inside the crate for both Robson and his suitcase, which he was determined to bring along on his journey back.

He also planned to carry a pillow, a flashlight, a bottle for water, a bottle for urine, and a small hammer to break open the crate once he reached London, his intended destination.

The trio then conducted a ‘test run,’ where Robson climbed into the crate while his friends sealed it, and they arranged for a truck to deliver the crate to Melbourne’s nearby airport.

The next morning, Robson climbed back into the crate, and after John and Paul nailed it shut, they said their goodbyes. It would be five more days before he was released.

“The first 10 minutes were fine,” he recalls. “But soon enough, my knees started cramping up with them pressed tightly against my chest.”

A couple of hours after he arrived at the airport, the crate was loaded onto the plane.

“By that point, I was in real pain,” he says. “When the plane took off, that’s when I started to think about oxygen. These planes weren’t pressurized, so there was barely any oxygen in the cargo hold.”

The first leg of his journey was a 90-minute flight from Melbourne to Sydney, which proved to be agonizing.

A grueling journey

But Robson’s harrowing ordeal was about to take a turn for the worse. When the crate he had squeezed himself into finally reached Sydney, it was placed on the tarmac upside down.

“So there I was, sitting on my neck and head, upside down for 22 hours,” he recalls.

Although Robson had booked his crate on a Qantas flight to London, that flight was fully booked, so his crate was rerouted onto a Pan Am flight to Los Angeles, which meant an even longer journey.

“The flight lasted about five days,” he says. “The pain was excruciating. I couldn’t breathe properly. I kept drifting in and out of consciousness.”

Robson says he began experiencing intensely vivid night terrors and could no longer tell what was real and what was just in his mind.

“I thought they were going to toss me out of the plane,” he recalls. “I completely lost it.”

He spent most of his time trapped in the crate, surrounded by total darkness, struggling with pain and a sense of disorientation.

“At one point, I honestly thought I was dying,” he says. “And I just wished it would happen quickly.”

When the plane finally reached its destination, he made up his mind to proceed with his plan.

“The plan was to wait until night, knock a hole in the side of the crate with the hammer I had, and just walk home,” he admits. “That’s how ridiculous the whole idea was.”

He was quickly found by two airport workers after he accidentally dropped his flashlight to the bottom of the crate.

Naturally, the workers, who had noticed the light shining from the box, were shocked when they took a closer look and saw a man inside.

“The poor guy probably nearly had a heart attack,” Robson says, explaining that he only realized he was in America when he heard the workers speaking with American accents.

“He kept shouting, ‘There’s a body in there!’ I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move.”

The airport workers rushed off to find their supervisor, but it took some time before they managed to convince anyone that it wasn’t a prank.

After confirming that the stowaway in the crate was alive and posed no threat, airport staff rushed Robson to the hospital, where he spent at least six days recovering.

By that time, his story had already made headlines, and reporters were flocking to hear the incredible tale of the man hidden inside the crate.

Although Robson was technically in the United States illegally, no legal action was taken against him.

The authorities simply handed him back to Pan Am, who arranged for the 19-year-old to return to London in a first-class seat.

He was met by television cameras when he finally landed at London Airport on May 18, 1965.

“My family was relieved to see me, but they certainly weren’t pleased with what I had done,” he admits.

Once back in Wales with his parents, Robson was eager to move on and leave the entire ordeal behind him.

Hopes for a reunion

But the publicity from his now infamous journey made him a recognizable figure, and the overwhelming attention soon became too much to handle.

Robson admits that he still feels haunted by the time spent in the crate and struggles to talk about it even after all these years.

“It’s a chapter of my life that, truthfully, I wish I could forget, but in reality, I can never erase it,” he says. “It’s just part of who I am now.”

“I mean, try spending that much time in a crate and see if you can forget it. Honestly, I think it would’ve been easier in a coffin, because at least you could stretch your legs.”

However, the incident has also led to some positive outcomes in his life. Robson has written a book, ‘The Crate Escape,’ about his experience, and his story is now being adapted into a movie.

Although Robson sent letters to John and Paul shortly after returning to Wales in 1965, he’s uncertain whether they ever received them.

However, he’s heard rumors that the two may have ‘fled’ when the media frenzy surrounding his story began.

It only recently dawned on Robson that his friends might have faced legal repercussions if he hadn’t made it through the journey.

“I owe them an apology for putting them in that dangerous situation,” he admits. “But, to be fair, it was a team effort. They played a role in it too. Still, I do feel a bit guilty.”

While he won’t reveal specifics, the 76-year-old shares that he’s recently received promising news about the pair and is optimistic that he’s getting closer to finding them.

For Robson, reuniting with John and Paul would be a meaningful way to close a chapter of his life that has haunted him for decades.

Although he’s lived and traveled around the world over the years, Robson has never returned to Australia. However, there’s one reason he would consider going back.

“The other day, an Australian reporter asked me if I’d ever go back,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Only if someone covers my expenses and it’s for the reunion [with John and Paul]. Otherwise, no thanks.’”

“The Crate Escape” by Brian Robson is set to be released on April 30 by Austin Macauley Publishers.