RAF Wellesleys in Australia, 1938

[JDK]

I was recently loaned a photo album featuring a bunch of pre-W.W.II photos taken by an unknown RAAF Airman.

[EDIT:] We think these were taken at Archerfield, Queensland.





The RAF Long Range Development Flight, who set a distance record in November 1938 by flying from Ismailia, Egypt to Darwin, Australia (7,162 miles, 11,525 km) - which stood until 1945! They then seem to have toured Australia, as I've seen photos at other stations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Wellesley

Cheers,

Last edited by JDK on Mon Nov 10, 2008 2:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Oscar Duck]

JDK looks like Archerfield to me..

[JDK]

Thanks Oscar. Could be. The hangar says 'Airlines of Australia' - would that fit for '38?

Great bit of film put together by Bomber Guy here:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sFIeRhysxRI

The Wellesley was notable not only for it geodetic construction (an odd, and over-used idea, IMHO) but also for being one of the first types to be fitted with detachable bomb-panniers under the wings. The latter part of the film shows them being loaded.

[Mark_Pilkington]

Airlines of Australia was operating in NSW and Queensland before acquired by Holymans and used to form ANA (the second ANA), in Northern Australia, using existing Holyman's routes in Southern Australia.

ANA also acquired Airlines of Western Australia via amalgation with Adelaide Airways, and that Airline would have been operating from Marylands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_National_Airways

Early in 1936 Ivan Holyman approached the Adelaide Steamship Company, owners of Adelaide Airways, with a view to an amalgamation aiming to become Australia's most powerful airline. Adelaide Airways had recently taken over West Australian Airways and the new combine would thus effectively control airline traffic between Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. With funding from the Orient Steam Navigation Company a new Australian National Airways was registered on 13 May 1936, and began services under its new name on 1 July 1936. It acquired a second DC-2 VH-UXJ Loongana that began a twice-weekly service between Melbourne and Perth on 21 December 1936.

Meanwhile efforts to expand operation northwards to Queensland were being thwarted by Airlines of Australia (AoA), its main competitor. Established in 1931 as New England Airways by G.A. Robinson and Keith Virtue of Lismore, it operated services in northern New South Wales and between Sydney and Brisbane, Queensland, expanding further into Queensland by taking over a number of struggling regional airlines during the mid 1930s. It was restructured as AoA in 1934 with funding by an investment group the British Pacific Trust. In 1936 it introduced Stinson Model A airliners in a regular service between Sydney and Brisbane, and later acquired Douglas DC-2s and Douglas DC-3s. After several months of fruitless negotiations with its financiers, ANA managed to gain a controlling interest in AoA in April 1937, although the two airlines retained separate public identities until 1942. Between them the two airlines operated four DC-2s and four DC-3s by the time of the outbreak of World War II, as well as several other aircraft including two Model As, two D.H.84s, two D.H.86s and nine de Havilland D.H.89 Rapides.

It is understood flights in Qld continued to be operated under the Airlines of Australia brand until WW2.

It would therefore seem Airlines of Australia would not have had operations or a hangar in WA, supporting Oscar's view the photo is in Qld.

regards

Mark Pilkington

[ausflyboy]

definately looks like archerfield to me too been there enough times. The hanger to the extreme left is the current RQAC hanger and I believe (well last time i was out there ) the other two hangers are also still there

[JDK]

Thanks folks, I've corrected the text!

[Glyn]

The old Wellesley must have been one of the first types to have a clear blown canopy - almost up to the 'bubble' standard.
Group Captain Pelly-Fry flew them on operations in the Middle East and they are mentioned in his book 'Recollections of a Contented Airman'.