Warbird Information Exchange

Restoration hit


By Stephen Linnell

17th June 2008 11:05:38 AM



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VOLUNTEERS trying to rebuild Australia’s only World War II B24 long-range bomber have been devastated by the theft of key parts worth more than $20,000.

Police are investigating the disappearance of parts of the fuselage and a disassembled hangar from the group’s storage facility on Sayers Rd, Laverton.

The theft means reconstruction of the B24 Liberator will be delayed as the group begins a new worldwide search for replacement parts.

“It’s devastating,” group spokesman Tony Muller told Star.

“It’s a huge set-back because they’ve taken away our ability to trade, which means in monetary terms this is a big blow.

“They’ve also taken the samples that we could have used to make up other parts.”

Mr Muller said parts of a fuselage that would have been used to complete a section of the plane had been stolen, as well as stainless steel engine surrounds that were crucial for completing two of the four engines.

“The parts looked like they were damaged and not worth anything, but they are to us. They don’t understand that these artefacts cannot be manufactured as new,” he said.

The thefts are believed to have taken place over the past four weeks.

An entire Bellman hangar, including more than 50 iron roofing sheets that were each 12 metres long, were among the items stolen.

“The thieves must have either had a truck or cut up the iron into pieces to take it away,” Mr Muller said.

The hangar was about half the size of the one on the Princes Highway where the B24 is being restored.

The restoration group was given the hangar when the Department of Defence sold the land in Sunshine. It was originally used to store materials during and after the World War II.

It was one of two hangars given to the group. The other was sold to a group in Phillip Island that used it to cover a swimming pool. The proceeds were used to buy materials for the reconstruction.

The group receives no government funding and must either trade materials or raise its own money to buy parts for the restoration.

Work on the B24 began in 1995 and started with just one wheel cap.

It is now about 85 per cent complete, but the theft will delay the scheduled finishing date of 2010.

When finished, the plane will be moved to another, larger hangar about 400 metres away, where it will be on permanent display.

The current site is on land owned by Melbourne Water, which is subject to the controversial Riverwalk development.

“Most probably these thieves were unaware that they were destroying World War II artefacts that would become a historical record of Werribee’s importance to the war effort during those first frantic years of the 1940s,” Mr Muller said.

“Maybe someone noticed the removal of the material, but because of the brazen nature they might have thought that it was normal.

“These are World War II artefacts and you can’t sell them overseas and you can’t damage them.”

A total of 18,700 of the planes were built between 1941 and 1944. There are just eight left in the world – six in the United States and two in England.