Ballalae warplanes shipped to Australia

[shelldrake]

I think this is a repeat of another chapter, same topic different location though. It will be interesting to watch as this issue develops. Sadly I think it may have a similar impact on wreck recoveries in the Solomons as SG has in PNG. Turner is listed as regularly using another warbird for sale - wanted site in recent years. He is apparently Sydney based, however, further inquiries have not been able to link him to any museum in Australia, although these checks have been limited I would have expected that such a large scale recovery would have been supported by a larger institution. Watching the TV news report is a bit misleading because it gives the impression that the recoveries took place in a short period of time, whereas others indicate that wrecks where being 'collected' and then located together so the loading could occur more efficiently.

As I have said, time will reveal all and this event has the attention of alot of people.

Shelldrake

[Mark_Pilkington]

I think this is a repeat of another chapter, same topic different location though. It will be interesting to watch as this issue develops. Sadly I think it may have a similar impact on wreck recoveries in the Solomons as SG has in PNG

I think it is very premature to become sceptical or defeatest over this current recovery from the Solomons, this current recovery has apparantly been under negotiations for many many years and differs dramatically from the SG situation in PNG in a number of key ways.

Firstly it appears the project enjoy's strong support from the Central Government AS WELL AS strong support from the tribal leaders of the local community, this was not the case in PNG with SG.

Secondly the Solomon's Government is accepting of the loss of a number of aircraft wrecks to oversea's restoration outcomes apparantly in trade for development of a National Museum collection and an annexe museum on the island itself. Which is assumed to also be acceptable to the local tribal leaders?

Again in PNG the "compensation" for the recovery of SG is not acceptable to all parties (and in fact the specific SG details seem blurry as to what the true deal was - sale? , restoration and return?)

Though Mr Turner is from my own country, I know little or nothing of him other than that circulating on the Net.

Mr Turner is apparantly not as well known in recovery or museum circles as the parties involved in PNG, and may therefore not have as strong creditionals to either restore the traded aircraft, or to develop the two museum outcomes, however he as apparantly demonstrated a capability to do so to the satisfaction of the Government of the Solomons, and this is the first issue.

This project is only in its first stage, the crucial stage for future recoveries from the Solomons and back into PNG will be the successful delivery by Mr Turner etc of development of the National Museum collection and local island museum annexe. At this stage this is nothing to suggest that will not occur.

The future disposition/ restoration of Mr Turner's aircraft would seem not to be a concern to the Solomon Islands as they do not seem to require any to be successfully restored and returned.

It would seem on the information available that Mr Turner gains full title to the wrecks to do so as he wishes, obviously these wrecks are rare and important survivors and hopefully will all be fully restored for at least static restoration, I can imagine there may be an increased interest from Japanese collectors and institutions.


His apparant track record, or lack of, in aircraft restoration? should not be taken to suggest that aspect of this project will not be successful either.

Given the rarity of these japanese recoveries to the survival of their types, and the importance this recovery will have on future recoveries in the Solomons and elsewhere in the Pacific, I believe we should all be supporting Mr Turner and wishing him luck in a successful conclusion, rather than forecasting failure.

Regards

Mark Pilkington

[ausflyboy]

Just found a good video on you tube showing the recovery

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=iGdF0G-4v ... re=related

Firstly it appears the project enjoy's strong support from the Central Government AS WELL AS strong support from the tribal leaders of the local community, this was not the case in PNG with SG.
Mark Pilkington

http://www.airplanebuy.com/buy-airplane ... ft-salvage

We believe there are a lot of people behind this deal. People we don’t know about. People we have never seen, people we will never meet. There is a lot of money changing hands. We as chiefs don’t even know when we are going to get our bit, that they have promised out of 220,000 US$ to move eleven planes. No money will make us feel good about moving anything. No amount of money.

Ninamo Otuana
Chief from Samanago Village on Farou Island
November 20, 2007

[Mark_Pilkington]

.
From the introdcution of the same news report........

HOST Tina Lemazi: Solomon Islands is known overseas for the role it played in the second world war. It was here in Solomon Islands that the Americans turned back the Japanese advance in the Pacific. The Solomons Islands played a pivotal role in the war and its remnants have dotted the landscape throughout the country.
But a move to sell war relics from Shortlands overseas has raised concerns. Two weeks ago, with the approval of government, the chiefs of FAMOA were paid 50,000 SI$ and signed off on a deal with an overseas buyer to sell their relics overseas. Owen Talo with more:

Owen Talo, Nila Village (in tok pidgin): One News Camera, is now at Nila village, Shortlands Islands for a special happening. The Minister of Tourism and a delegation of two officers and the minister of tourism all have come to Nila village Shortlands, for signing a very important something in terms of removing all the war wreckage of shortland, especially at Nila, is the story I received. FAMOA, stands for Farou, Mono and Alu [Islands in Shortlands]. All form one council of chiefs, where everyone has signed for taking out war relics. Many of those remains from the war are from Shortlands Harbor and also here in one hanger of Japan where airplanes remain this time. The time we arrived, a big signing ceremony happened where everyone agreed to remove every relic from the Shortlands. This is a setback for tourism of this country. Also, TINA, a ship RAMSI [Regional Assistance Mission, Solomon Islands] has used for doing work has also come Shortlands and they will remove every war relic from Nila and also Ballalae.

Regards

Mark Pilkington

The previous Solomons Government apparently struck a deal last November with local chiefs to export every warplane wreck in the Shortland Islands group. It agreed to pay chiefs from a group of islands known as FAMOA 50,000 Solomon Island dollars for the wrecks. That's about 7-thousand Australian dollars. Many locals are very unhappy with the deal, and a Solomon Islands television station called One News sent a reporter to the Shortland Islands to investigate.

Ian Townsend: and this is the hot debate at the moment. Should what's left be removed to be protected and restored, or should it be left as it is? There are good arguments for both sides.

John White from the Australian War Memorial.

John White: It does get some people's blood up, and the War Memorial, for instance, when we're involved in the salvage of material, which we have done, perhaps not in recent years but five or six years ago we had done several recoveries. We put a lot of effort into making certain that landowners, local government and national governments involved in these recoveries, people who owned the places where the aircraft were, or even owned the wrecks themselves, were fully satisfied and dealt with in the process of the recovery. So that when we brought the material back to Australia and incorporated it in our displays or our collection, that we knew that there were no problems in the long term, that's really important. It's important to be respectful and to stay within the law even though it might take a long time to work through the obstacles.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbrie ... 149496.htm