John Ferguson introduced our Guest Speaker, Peter Moll from Albury, and a member of Albury Rotary Club. The background briefing was extensive, as you would expect from an acquaintance of 38 years. Peter's dad came from Holland after service in world war two, and established an air charter company in 1967. Peter provided the background and history of a famous incident that occurred in Albury in 1934 - during an air race from England to Melbourne. To commemorate the centenary of establishment of Melbourne, the city mayor initiated the race, and a wealthy confectioner, Sir McPherson Robertson (He made cherry ripes) put up 143 000 pounds. It's very hard to locate the symbol for pounds on modern keyboards - you must imagine that it's there!!!!! The race attracted various types of aircraft, from custom made, De Havilland comets, a DC2, the subject of our story, Boeing 247D, and flimsy fabric coated single seaters. There were 64 entries, just 20 started, and about half finished, up to six months later. The plane that landed in Albury in October 1934, was a stock standard DC2, built by Boeing in America. It had been recently delivered to the Dutch airline KLM. The airline was already flying scheduled services to Indonesia, and the race flight operated as a commercial route, with passengers, freight and mail. The basic rules were: no limit to the size of aircraft or power, no limit to crew size, and no pilot to join aircraft after it left England. Aircraft had to carry three days' rations per crew member, floats, smoke signals, and efficient instruments. There were prizes for the outright fastest aircraft, and for the best performance on a handicap formula by any aircraft finishing within 16 days. The race route to Melbourne had compulsory stops at Baghdad, Allahabad, Singapore, Darwin, Charleville and Melbourne, but competitors could stop at any other airport. There were retirements, crashes and deaths, but the experience of the Dutch aircraft in Albury is now folklore. On the last leg, Charlville to Melbourne, the Uiver ran into thunderstorms, and didn't get lost - just temporarily unsure of their position. From Albury they flew east, then west, it got dark, until some locals realised that they were race entrants, flashed ALBURY in morse code with street lights, and lit a runway at the racecourse with car headlights. The crew landed the DC2 on the soggy Albury racecourse, and managed to bog the Uiver. Next day the locals dragged the plane out of the bog, unloaded the baggage, and with a skeleton crew and minimum weight, took off for Melbourne, and managed to land for second place in the race - or first on handicap. The Dutch Government were very appreciative of the Albury community for this action, and have an ongoing relationship with the city. The original "Uiver" returned to Europe, resumed service with KLM but crashed with loss of life just months later in Syria. A DC2 - obviously not the original, was located for restoration at Bankstown airport in Sydney. This aircraft was moved to Albury and restored by a community group, and then mounted on two poles at Albury airport. It deteriorated over time, was removed and stored. The Council lost interest, and tried to sell the plane. But..........there was a Dutchman in the community, and he was an aviator. Peter Moll became involved and a new restoration is underway. That was the focus of Peter's talk to us today. |