Click here for our PICTURE GALLERY of the historic flight in Diggers Rest by Harry Houdini.

WHETHER it was removing handcuffs while suspended upside down underwater or trying to be the first man to fly, escapologist Harry Houdini knew how to put on a show that would pull a crowd. So when he took to the air at a field in Plumpton, near Diggers Rest, he made sure the event went off with a bang.

One hundred years later, and again the crowd will be looking skyward to celebrate the day when, give or take a little controversy, he laid claim to be the first man in Australia to make a powered, sustained and controlled flight on March 18, 1910.

Fellow aviator Ralph Banks was camped at the very same Plumpton paddock waiting for the wind to ease. Banks took a gamble on the morning of March 1, 1910, but according to some reports, he bumped the ground with his undercarriage so that his Wright Flyer slewed sideways and somersaulted.

Houdini waited 17 days and took off on March 18. He made three successful flights in his French built biplane that day, ranging between one minute and three minutes, reached an altitude of 100 feet (30 metres) and travelled more than two miles (3.2 kilometres).

If Houdini was the first, then he backed up the flight with a number of other firsts, including making a half-circuit followed by a full circuit. On March 21, 1910 he flew for 7 minutes and 37 seconds, covering about six miles (about 10 kilometres).

The hard work of local volunteers can be thanked for making it happen.

Organisers have been toiling for at least 18 months to pull together the three-day Festival of Flight, which begins on Thursday.

The festival has been organised by the Diggers Rest community in partnership with local Lions Clubs and special-interest groups, including the Melton and District Historical Society and Melton Shire Council.