Reg (Reginald) Spiers, an Australian javelin thrower from Adelaide, air-freighted himself from London to Perth in a wooden crate in October 1964 because he was penniless and needed to get home for his young daughter’s birthday.
Spiers (then 22) had competed in the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth (finishing fifth) and was a strong national-level thrower. In 1964 he went to Britain to train and try to recover from an injury in hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. That bid failed. Broke after financing his trip and working briefly in cargo at Heathrow, which gave him practical knowledge of freight rules and crate sizes, he was desperate to return to Australia.
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| John McSorley built this wooden box for his friend Reg Spiers in 1964. |
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| Airport workers at Perth, Western Australia, with the packing case Spiers traveled in. |
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| The discovery of the box at Perth Airport in 1964 caused a media storm. |
“I worked in the export cargo section, so I knew about cash-on-delivery with freight,” Spiers said. “I’d seen animals come through all the time and I thought, ‘If they can do it, I can do it.’”
He enlisted his friend and fellow javelin thrower John McSorley, who had carpentry experience), to build a wooden box measuring roughly 5 ft × 3 ft × 2 ft 6 in (about 1.5 m × 0.9 m × 0.75 m), the largest size typically accepted for air freight at the time. The crate had internal straps to secure him during handling, latches or spigots operable from the inside at either end so he could exit regardless of orientation, and gaps for air (sometimes described as pennies wedged between slats). It was large enough for him (over 6 ft / ~1.8–2 m tall) to sit with legs straight or lie with knees bent.
They labeled the cargo as “plastic emulsion,” paint, or similar nondescript material bound for a fictitious Australian shoe company / “Mr. Graham” in Perth, and sent it cash-on-delivery (COD) so no payment was required upfront. Spiers packed limited supplies (tinned food such as spaghetti, a torch, blanket, pillow, water bottle, and a container for urine; some mention a change of clothes or suit, passport, and small snacks). On October 17, 1964, McSorley and friends delivered the sealed crate to Heathrow freight. The journey on an Air India flight (via stops including Paris and Bombay/Mumbai) lasted about 63 hours including delays and covered roughly 11,000–13,000 miles to Perth.
It was far from smooth: a lengthy fog delay at Heathrow kept him confined for many hours before takeoff; he briefly exited the crate in flight (e.g., between London and Paris) to relieve himself and nearly left evidence behind; in Mumbai the crate was left inverted on the hot tarmac for hours; he came close to severe dehydration/heat exhaustion; there were rough handling incidents, including a near-drop by forklift.
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| Reg Spiers competed in the javelin in the 1962 Commonwealth Games. |
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| John McSorley in Twickenham, 1964. |
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| John McSorley (left), Reg Spiers (centre) and a friend in Twickenham, 1964. |
Upon arrival in Perth the crate went to a freight area. Spiers got out, left the unpaid COD bill, and made his way onward, hitchhiking hundreds of miles toward Adelaide, where he arrived in time for the birthday. Spiers’ story stayed quiet until a worried McSorley contacted a sports journalist to confirm that his friend had arrived safely. The story exploded into international news, turning Spiers into a folk hero.
However, his life took darker turns in the decades that followed. Spiers later became involved in the drug trade and went on the run across multiple continents. He was arrested in Sri Lanka in 1984, briefly handed a death sentence for drug smuggling, but successfully appealed and returned to Australia where he served a prison sentence. His incredible life story was later documented by McSorley’s family in the book Out Of The Box: The Highs and Lows of a Champion Smuggler.
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| Reg Spiers outside the Sri Lankan High Court during his trial for the possession of narcotic drugs in 1987. |
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