Have we learned anything?

A92-22One of only two surviving Mk.1 Jindiviks, A92-22 does a slow rot out the back the Australian Naval Aviation Museum’s 6,000 square metre hangar complex at HMAS Albatross. The former Jervis Bay Range Facility gate guardian is second only to RAAF Endinburgh’s A92-9 as the the world’s oldest surviving Jindivik. Would this have been allowed, had a significance assessment been carried out?

Ironically, the Museum has a substantial covered storage facility barely a few hundred metres away.

A Holden…of sorts

All collecting institutions endure the frustration of never having sufficient space for the display and storage of their – always – expanding collections.

This is particularly true for large public institutions, like the Queensland Museum, occupying premium CBD real estate. It’s partly for this reason that the provenance of a donation offer is now being subject to ever more scrutiny.

The GMH inspector's stamp which substantiated the likely source of this Lincoln wreckage.
The GMH inspector’s stamp which substantiated the likely source of this Lincoln wreckage.

Continue reading “A Holden…of sorts”

Long and winding road

Built in 1944, former T.A.A. DC-3 VH-CAO has spent almost half its life on the ground, covering more miles by road – in the past thirty-five years – than it has by air.

It arrived this evening at the Caboolture Warplane & Flight Heritage Museum after a four day inland road trip via Charters Towers and Duaringa.  A deetrmined survivor, VH-CAO is now owned by David Kingshott of Complete Aircraft Care who plans an airworthy restoration for the C-47A.

After retirement from service in 1979 it was sold tothe  Chewing Gum Field Aircraft Museum at Tallebudgera, Queensland. After that folded it went to Drages Airworld at Wangaratta, Victoria, and went turtle in 2002 it was roaded to its most recent address – in Mareeba.

Things can only get better from here!

Nhill ‘s $355,000 grant

Anyone able to i.d. this airframe?The Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre in Western Victoria has recently received a $355,000 grant from the State Regional Growth Fund, to help develop an aviation  museum  complex incorporating surviving WWII – and pre-war- heritage structures located at the town’s aerodrome.  A central element of this new complex will be a Avro Anson which is undergoing restoration  following its recovery from a local property.