Australian International AirShow 2005 photographs Tribute to my uncle Pat Dollisson who died 4/3/05. Travelling to the USA?Check out Stewart's problems with TSA in 11/04. Look at the Defence Air Show at RAAF Amberley 2004. Check out Caboolture Air Spectacular 2004 A tribute to my father, Group Captain Jack Dollisson, DFC, AFC, retired who passed away Saturday 6/12/03. Our 2003 New Zealand trip and photographs. Please note our aviation quiz - give it a go and tell your friends. Narrabri
trip 2003 click here. RAAF National Memorial Re-dedication 1/11/02 photographs of the flypast, aircraft details and more. |
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What's
new this week So whomever is spreading this false rumour please stop. Legal action will be taken if we hear any more comments of this type around the industry. AERO Australia's schedule is set for the whole of 2010 and part of 2011 - so you aren't rid of us at all. AERO Australia's web site has not been updated for months because our publisher has moved the hosting in-house and security issues need to be addressed before I will have outside access to its in-house system. Bear with us and soon it will be updated and back on track. We have a new Subaru Liberty Wagon to replace our stolen one. It is very different. Gearbox wise I'd prefer the old car, and I loathe the electronic park brake. A manual gearbox needs a manually operated handbrake. You drive a manual gearbox to have more driver control, not to have a motor control how you take off. I'm dreading my first steep hill start in Sydney traffic! This model is so much larger than my old girl. Inside and out it is longer, wider, higher and roomier. It handles beautifully - as Subaru owners expect from their cars. Stewart is busy with AERO issue 26 and a new 'special' magazine which will be out in May. He's on tenter hooks in this hot dry windy weather, especially today as our brigade has no truck drivers in the village. Hopefully tonight that will change, even better if we have no fires. (31/12/09) Happy New Year! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas with family and friends. Safe journey to all who may be travelling over this busy period. (29/12/09) We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. To the bastards who stole my Subaru from outside Canberra hospital, I hope you rot in hell. Fancy coming out of the hospital in the dark, your elderly mother sitting near the entrance doors while you race down the hill to collect the car, but it isn't there. As we live a long way from Canberra it was a concern that we may not find a taxi prepared to drive out and back to Canberra. Thankfully we got a taxi but didn't get home until 10.20pm and Mum was exhausted. Sadly my trusty well-loved car was trashed inside with alcohol, some even sprayed on the outsides. They bent the nearside rear quarter panel in two places, tore off the aerial, put two serious dents into both offside doors, broke all the steering column covers, even broke my mobile phone car kit, took my Sydney street directory and my good sunglasses, left scissors and rubber gloves in the car - and amazingly a single purple high heel! I reported the car stolen to the ACT police on Monday 21st just after 8.30pm and they found it abandoned in rural ACT before 1am. My biggest problem so close to Christmas was finding a smash shop to take the car. Luckily two Fyshwick businesses were workingover christmas to catch up with work, one took the car and has it well under control. Next Stewart's 'favourite' uncle died in Sydney on Christmas Eve, so that made us feel even less christmassy. Then Stewart hurt his back on Christmas day - what next we thought? Stewart drove to Sydney today for the funeral while I stayed home to care for Mum. Very good friends loaned us a car so I could take Mum to the medical centre today, and chase up a new car tomorrow. Mum needs constant medical cre and I need a car to transport her. You can't live out in the country without wheels. Times like this show you who your real friends are. Most people are wonderful and so helpful. No-one could believe anyone could be low enough to take a car from around a hospital. Low life people don't give a toss about anyone else only their own 'fun'. 2010 can't come soon enough for us. We wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year. Take care if you are on the roads over this busy period. (13/12/09) Stewart is recovering from a small operation he had last Thursday. He has to avoid strenuous activity for two weeks at least. I picked him up on Friday morning from hospital in Canberra and we came directly home. Stewart went for a wander around the verandah and came back with the report on our enviro system. Obviously they'd come while I was out. Next he was excited because he heard (or thought he heard) two F-111s fly over to welcome him home. No ego here! We had lunch and he rested. Late afternoon while I was watering our pot plants Stewart was wandering again and found a note from a transport company under the mat near the front door. It said they had tried to deliver five boxes and they would now be available from Canberra Airport!!! Usually couriers leave the goods on our verandah as they know we won't be away long - and we know them. In fact, most ring first to check we'll be here. So now I have to go into Canberra and collect boxes that should have been delivered to me. Not impressed. People forget this isn't Sydney or Canberra and I find having to travel more than 100 kilometres to get something that was supposed to be delivered somewhat ridiculuous. It will cost me more than the original freight fee. Thankfully we are free of magazine deadlines for some time and Stewart may relax. We have my elderly mother arriving tomorrow to stay with us. She is very frail and not able to get around easily. We're hoping having her in a country atmosphere will help as that's what she's been used to for many decades. Like me she was a keen gardener and maybe I will be able to entice her into the garden, even get some help from her. We'll see. Thank you to those who have called to check on Stewart, he really appreciates your kindness. He even had visitors yesterday, but he kept dozing off while they were speaking to him. Not very good but they understood. He should settle down in a few days and be back to normal soon. Take care over the holiday period and have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year. (5/12/09) What a week! Changes at the Federal politics level (new Opposition Leader) and now a new State Premier last night. I don't think anything can now save the NSW Labor government, the electorate is sick to death of them. However, the new Liberal Opposition Leader may be a good chance, at least he will take the fight to the government. The other guy just agreed with them and was not of appeal to the electorate. Thank heavens both Warbirds and now AERO are done. Stewart and Mat worked all night on Thursday because other people mucked them aorund and they were not able to have the magazine finished. It was finally 'over' at 3.30pm (for Stewart) on Friday but Mat still had to package it all up and ftp to the printer. Now we may relax for a while. I've had to take things easy for the last couple of days as I couldn't use my hands properly - either RSI or arthritis. I struggled to get things done earlier in the week but was annoyingly slow. Maybe now I can recover. Last weekend we went to HARS AGM and Christmas party. On the drive down Macquarie Pass we learned Mum was not well and considered turning around and heading directly to Sydney. My sister was waiting for a doctor to call - so we decided to continue and check again after the doctor had been. Thankfully things weren't dire so we decided to head north the following morning. The Christmas party was good, more attended than last year. We enjoyed good food and wonderful company (except for Timmsy). My only complaint was the band being way too loud, the music was good. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast as the usual motel was booked out months ago. It was only two houses from the beach, very well appointed like a motel room. Sadly the bed was spring based and we kept rolling onto each other - so not much sleep. If the bed was better we'd stay there everytime we went to HARS but sleep is important. We drove to Sydney and spent many hours with Mum. She was up and tried her best to hold conversations with us all. My brother brought his young son over as it was his first birthday. Mum was happy to see him and he kept us all entertained. Eventually we left and headed home. My Subaru's clutch started making squealing noises just before we left the Hume highway and then all the way home. Naturally, when I took it to Subaru the following day it was silent! I'll have it thoroughly checked next week. I will need it to go to Sydney again soon to see Mum. We've had good value from both our cars but they are now old and carrying high kilometres. Time to move on. Sad to learn the NZ two-seater Spitfire has had a hard landing again so soon after its repairs from the first such landing. No-one was hurt that's the good part. We look forward to seeing it fly again soon. (25/11/09) The Telstra problems are continuing. How are ordinary Australians supposed to deal with this monster company which has no respect for its customers? Even Paul Sheehan of the Sydney Morning Herald has been through the Telstra wringer recently - his telephone service was cut off too. Telstra owes us $78.98 because it overcharged us on two consecutive bills. Instead of fixing the problem it has compounded it. We received yet another demand for payment or... I again went into Queanbeyan to the Telstra shop. The same young lady tried to sort it out. It would appear that the credit has been placed into an account we didn't even know we had at Telstra. Unfortunately this account has been closed by Telstra and the credit can't be retrieved. Solution? We pay the 'outstanding monies' and wait for Telstra to raise a cheque from the 'closed' account and post it to us. Would you believe this? I don't. I've paid the money (so we've paid twice in effect) and I'm to believe Telstra will send us a cheque... Why am I feeling cheated? Apart from fighting with Telstra we've been very busy trying to put together Warbirds of Australia and New Zealand and AERO Australia magazines. Stewart is wrung out but we see light at the end of the tunnel. Warbirds will go to press today and be on sale by 9 December. AERO should go next week... The Bungendore (Volunteer) Fire Brigade was one which sent people to fight fires around Rylstone. I get really aggro these days when the media reports the Rural Fire Service is fighting fires - it isn't. The people on the ground are almost all the volunteers (the government doen't like to use that word) and they belong to the NSW Rural Fire Brigades. The 'Service' is the fancy head office and its staff and all the top people in the local areas not the fire fighters. The Service directs things and organises training, vehicles, etc. That is my understand but I'm not a member. Before the last Federal election much fanfare was made of the announcement of a NEW Category One fire truck for Bungendore. Both the State Member (now State Emergency Services Minister) and the hopeful Labor (sic) candidate jointly made this announcement at our Emergency Services Building. More than twelve months later a trashed OLD Cat One Isuzu arrived. It was missing much of the vital equipment required for this to be our primary fire fighting unit. We should have removed our (paid for by our brigade) equipment from our old Isuzu before handing it on... Our members tried their best, along with the local RFS office in Queanbeyan to fix this NEW truck. Finally it was agreed this vehicle should be taken to an expert for assessment. It went to Gilbert & Roach in Sydney. G&R found the truck was seriously down on power, had been submerged in salt water for some time and it should be scrapped. Has either politician made any announcements about this disgraceful exercise? Most definitely not. They got their mileage and won the election. Bungendore is a very busy brigade. At the moment it is relying on Palerang One (a spare unit for this region to cover trucks in for service) for its primary fire fighting effort while we wait to see what turns up next. Supposedly it will be an Isuzu not more than five years old. For heavens sake, we all pay huge levies for fire on all our insurances and Council rates why can't we have a NEW truck as promised. Bungendore is a fast growing community. Most of the new growth comes from defence personnel and other government employees. We're only 30 kilometres from the nation's capital. Our VOLUNTEER fire brigade is the only service available to our large community in the case of fire. Our homes would be ash by the time paid professional fire teams arrived from either Queanbeyan or Canberra. I guess this nonsense is happening all over the State. Brigades are expected to do the impossible with old trucks and equipment. It is false economy and sadly will bite us in a way we won't want to face in a heavy fire season. I wish I could win the Lottery because I'd donate a brand new fully equiped fire truck to our local brigade - it would be so tied up in legalese the State Government couldn't take it from us. I'm off to mow our very long dry grass to remove a fire hazard. I don't want any fires here. The last close fire was Friday 13 March 1998 and I was here alone as Stewart was on duty in the old Fire shed. It came less than 400 metres of us but stopped a the road. It was a running grass fire - so the grass has to go. (1/11/09) We've had the week from hell. On Wednesday at 10.30am we found our telephones cut off. I've had numerous telephone conversations with Telstra's staff about problems with our account since July and nothing was being resolved. So this time I grabbed all the paperwork and my notes and drove into the Telstra shop in Queanbeyan. I wanted to deal with a perosn I could see. I have to say the Queanbeyan staff were fantastic. This is a franchise business not a Telstra owned shop, maybe that helped. They got into our account and saw the copious notes of my various complaints. Our account should have been on hold while Telstra decided if it would honour a credit due to us for overcharging. Somehow someone decided to cut us off over $56.73 ( and a further $20 credit due on the following account) credit that hadn't been put against our account. The person at Telstra accounts promised to reconnect our telephones within 24 hours - and without and additional fees as the disconnect was Telstra's fault not ours. The Queanbeyan person applied in writing for the credits due us to be approved and applied to our account. (Do you believe this process?) This was approved the following day. So I went home hoping the telephone would be working again before the close of the business day. Five o'clock, no phones. Thursday four pm still no phones, definitely more than 24 hours since the reconnect was approved. I rang the Queanbeyan store and the same helpful person rang accounts again. She was told the phones would be 'connected within 24 hours'. Where does Telstra measure its 24 hours from? At five pm a friend rang us. So obviously the telephone was back on but no-one from Telstra told us. Now I find the BigPond account is double what we contracted for, so back to Queanbeyan next week for them to do battle for me again. I should bill Telstra/BigPond for all the wasted hours and days just since 12 February this year. I I added the time wasted by Dell Computers I'd have a good outside income. Why aren't any of these companys responsible for their actions? We've not been offered any compensation by either Telstra or BigPond for the lost business because they'd cut us off or not got our modem working. If we had any other telecommunications available to us believe me we'd jump instantly. What happened to customer service? Stewart and I've just returned from the National Warbird Operator Safety Conference in Sydney. This was a very interesting event and more interested parties should attend. We attended the Australian Warbird Associaton Ltd AGM this morning before returning home. Sadly I could not avoid a Galah just near home. A group of three came through the bushes very low. I stood on the brakes and missed two but the lower bird hit mid windscreen and slip up and hit the edge of the screen and disappeared. We love these birds and wouldn't hurt one for any reason. I feel very flat now. We have thunder storms surrounding us now, it is very dark and now I can see the lightning. Time to logg off and turn the computer off. (21/10/09) Where have we been? Seriously ill or off air due to our ISP. I've decided 2009 can't end fast enough because I haven't been very well since Avalon (March). I've had enough of doctors who 'panic', specialists who don't give you enough information,being given a tablet that destroyed my stomach lining, too many blood tests that have resulted with me being very low in iron and vitamin B-12; and the icing on the cake catching the fly/head colds from sitting in waiting rooms. Naturally I passed the 'bug' onto Stewart but he's been able to throw it off much quicker than me. He can take medicines to assist while I can't. I think my body has decided that it is allergic or unhappy with all medicines. Very helpful. In the middle of this we managed to make a second visit to Temora to see the Sabre's first public flying display. What a wonderful sight. First we saw the Sabre flying by itself as the pilot was practising his display for the public flying weekend, then we watched it in formation with a Hornet from the same Squadron (top hat tail). This weekend proved most popular with the public, it was packed inside the Museum's enclosures. Well done to the Temora team as usual. We were rudely awakened at 5.52am yesterday when Stewart's fire pager started squawking. Hoons had stolen a car and set it alight on the edge of the village. At that hour it was easy to get a crew and attend the fire. Usually it is during the day while most members are away in Queanbeyan or Canberra working that he needs to find a crew. Thankfully we haven't had any serious fires this season... Anyone keen to assist us catch up with mowing and gardening? As I usually do this work and I've been unable to do anything for months it has got away from us. We've had good rain during spring so the grass (read weeds) have taken off. So we're going to try and give it a good hit this weekend, cut the grass, burn or pull weeds (spray cape weed) and cover the fruit tree and vegetable garden with mulch. They are predicting thunder storms for both days, hopefully they won't affect our work! If all goes well, we will have the second Warbirds of Oz and NZ magazine on sale by 9 December, and AERO Australia out by 16 December. So we've got lots to do over the next six weeks. We will be attending the Warbirds Safety Conference in Sydney 31 October and the HARS AGM and 30th anniversary celebrations at the end of November. (14/9/09) We're back! Our ISP suffered a major meltdown in its servers - then forgot about us. It took many telephone calls before the right person was contacted and we were reinstated. Now I'm trying to catch up with what needs to be done to update the site. Stewart and I went to Temora for the first public flying display of the RAAF's Sabre. We enjoyed the relaxed Friday practise day when the Sabre and Hornet first did their joint and individual displays. Most impressive. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day. The people arrived early and just kept coming for hours. TAM had to pen up new areas just so everyone could fit into the Museum's grounds. It was a crush but everyone was excited to see the various aircraft fly, especially the Sabre. Two of AERO's photographers made long journeys to attend this historic weekend, Murray Permain drove up from Melbourne and Brett Cummins flew over from Adelaide. It was good to catch up with them. Murray and I spent most of the day together outside the museum's premises taking photographs - no people around us and less problem with the sun too. The fire season has been declared early and the Bungendore Brigade has been very busy for weeks. This makes it difficult for Stewart to get things done as planned for AERO. We hope we have a mild season and our people dont spent the whole spring/summer working at fires here or further afield. We didn't get our usual winter rains so things are very dry. Fingers crossed. AERO will go to print on Wednesday, a week late due to many additional magazines our publisher sent to press last week. Work has commenced on the next Warbirds magazine which will be out by the end of November. Then the next AERO will be out two weeks or so later. Busy, busy. (28/8/09) I am unsure what is happening with our ISP as its servers have been down since Tuesday 18th and are still down as I'm writing this. I was told they would have the problem fixed two day ago... Stewart and I visited Temora Aviation Museum on Monday. Imagine our delight when we learned the newly restored Sabre would be making two flights that day. The first was in overcast light but the late afternoon flight was in lovely soft sunlight. It was a long but enjoyable day catching up with friends. I was lucky to arrive at our Subaru dealership last week just as the new Liberty was being delivered. I was allowed to sit in it and have a good look before it was hidden. This model will not be released officially until 15 September even though the previous model is totally sold out. I was booking my car in for an oil service ahead of its 200K overhaul. This is the most reliable car I've owned. I just love it. Stewart had a fire call-out this morning and the same happened last Friday morning too. Both were burns which got away from the property owners. Why do people light fires when they don't even have any water on hand in case they have a problem? That unmistakable sound caught my attention this morning - a Caribou above. It circled the village and headed into Canberra. Stewart was excited when he finally arrived home - had I heard it? Yes, I knew exactly what he was talking about. We will miss this aeroplane so much once it is retired. It has been invaluable to this and our surrounding countries. Look at the work it has recently been doing in New Guinea around Kokoda. Monday marks a very special day for anyone who has been involved with Australia's Canberras and the RAAF. It will mark the home coming of the bodies of Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver from their long resting place in the jungles of Vietnam. Temora Aviation Museum is sending the Canberra to Richmond to honour these men, our last to return fromthis war zone. My father would be so happy to know they are home. He was CO of 2 Sqn for many years and he loved his Canberras. May they rest in Peace.t (28/7/09) I have been suffering constant headaches, nausea and other problems for more than a month now without a resolution from the medicos. For most of that time I have been unable to function properly. The frustration of attending the doctor and having numerous tests and not getting any answers is wearing me down. I believe I've only been able to use a computer for a couple of days over that period. Any suggestions? Stewart had a wonderful trip to St Louis and Seattle earlier this month. The St Louis part was to attend the roll-out of the first RAAF Super Hornet, something Stewart was delighted to attend. He's a strong supporter of this aircraft purchase. They (Australian and other media) were briefed about the Boeing 787 in Seattle - not a private Australian Aviation briefing as stated in its most recent magazine...naughty, naughty :). As usual with this type of media trip, they left on Monday afternoon and were home by the following Sunday morning. Lots forced into a few days and everyone very tired, especially those who can't sleep on aircraft...Stewart. He is back in the harness working on the next issue of AERO Australia. How exciting to see the RAAF's Sabre take to the skies over Temora at the hands of Darren 'Buster' Crabb courtesy of SBS One. We can't wait to see it fly ourselves. Congratulations TAM. (23/6/09) What a week! Off to Sydney last Tuesday and we sat in misty rain almost all the way. We were visiting a good friend at Bankstown airport and I wanted to take some photographs...lovely grey sky and misty rain. We gave up and headed into the city to my sister's. Driving in the city in rain is even more stressful than normal. Thankfully we now have an RTA E-Tag which made getting around easier. As my sister was overseas we dined out with my brother-in-law. It was a most enjoyable meal. It got even better when good friends Peter and Sharon McKay arrived at the restaurant with their daughter and her boyfriend. The conversation kept flowing across both tables until we left. An amazing coincidence. The following day we planned to take a ferry across to Circular Quay and then walk to the Wooloomooloo Finger Wharf to attend the Embraer Phenom 300 cockpit launch. It was raining lightly as we left and we missed the ferry. We caught a train to Wynyard, then on to St James. Then we walked. Thankfully the rain held off until we got to the wharf. Once the event was over it was pouring so we caught a taxi back to north Sydney. The taxi driver was doing his best to make us sick by constant on-off throttle movement, he didn't seem to know how to control the throttle properly. As it was so miserable we scrapped our plans for other business in Sydney and headed home. It was a slow and painful trip and wet until we were almost home. We've had a cold and mostly wet weekend. Our tank is full again which is wonderful. Stewart found our tip impossible for a two wheel drive vehicle after all the 4x4s cut up the roads over the weekend. We have no rubbish collection so Stewart makes the run each Sunday or Monday. Thankfully our tip's manager took pity on him and let him leave our rubbish in his ute to deal with later once the roads are repaired. This laptop has refused to boot twice this week. It tells me to remove the camera or music player attached and restart. It has to be something invisible because I've never attached either piece or equipment to this computer and nothing else is plugged in either. I let it tell Microsoft, for all the good that will do me. If only I could rely on this expensive computer (only four months old) to boot each time I press the button. It seems to fail around every third or fourth time...any suggestions (besides boat anchor). (8/6/09) You won't believe what was wrong with our BigPond access. The password. I spent 2 and a half hours with a technician who checked everything on my computer even though I said the problem was between the modem and BigPond, before she told me the modem was faulty. We waited for a new modem to arrive, it wouldn't work either. We employed a commercial technician who also spent time speaking to BigPond. It was only after thinking about what our technician had said that I rang BigPond the following day to ask him to check all areas where the password resides. Bingo, problem solved... I hate technology where you are made to feel useless. If the first technician had actually listened to me, we would have had the matter solved in minutes. This would have solved my sanity, Stewart's heartache over getting AERO completed, the expense of a commercial technician and BigPond a new modem and a second and third technician's time. The problem is using people who don't speak English naturally and don't think as we do. They are almost impossible to understand when you're stressed, and they only work from a script. If your question doesn't fit the script then forget it...you may as well hang up and save the heart attack. Thankfully the final technician allowed me to have my say and clicked with what I was saying. His grasp of English was better than the others. I thanked him profusely and the relief I felt was amazing. Stewart had been ready to kill someone as he had lots of AERO layouts waiting for him to check. It was almost impossible to do this via dial-up. Thank heavens I don't trust anything technical and we've kept it going, expensive but necessary. BigPond has let us down for more than 2 weeks since we connected on 12 February. Not a good record to date. If only we had any other service available... The joys of living in the country, even if only 35km from the Nation's capital city! I am sick to death of the constant debate in the ACT over fireworks. They allow fireworks to be sold to ACT residents only (Ha, Ha, Ha) and they may only be let off on Saturday and Sunday of the Queen's Birthday weekend between 5 and 9pm. So how come we had them going off right up until 1.30am on Saturday morning, and again on Sunday at all times? Many of our neighbours have other properties in the ACT and so they are legally able to purchase. There is no legal requirement for them to only let them off inside the ACT. I heard on the radio many people had fireworks in Sydney too. It is time for this charade to end. Fireworks should be banned tonationwide other than those putting on public displays. This would allow many of us to sleep on the Queen's Birthday weekend and no people or animals would be wounded or frightened by fireworks. I'm hoping for lots of sunny weather this coming week. we're tired of grey skies and fog or misty rain. this rain does not deliver any real moisture to our tank or garden. It just makes it cold and miserable - depressing. We've had enought of that through technology lately to last us a long time. Have a good week! (27/5/09) We're without Internet access again! The new Telstra wireless modem has failed. I spent well over two hours with a technician going through all the parts of my computer even though I kept saying the problem had to be between our modem and Telstra's tower. After all that time she finally told me the modem was faulty and we'd get a new one within five working days!!! Does no-one understand that when you're in business you need the Internet access you're paying for? We are on deadlines for the enxt issue of AERO and access is critical. I've resurrected the dial-up service on the old computer so we can at least clear rubbish from our email boxes but the line speed is too slow to do much else. I am so tired of wasting hours/days because of product or service failures from major companies. You have your day planned until you find you have no internet access or your brand new computer won't boot and no-one wants to talk to you. You know you'd be out of business if you treated customers as you've been treated, but that's how big companies behave these days. We have a 3 wireless modem for travel but it doesn't work in this area. I'd have to drive into Queanbeyan to get access. You can't win no matter how much you plan to have all the necessary equipment to do your job efficiently... Fingers crossed the Telstra modem turns up quickly so we're back in business soon. I bet they don't offer us a refund for the lost time... (10/5/09) I am delighted to be at home this weekend. Last Saturday was too much travel and sitting in aeroplanes. I am no fan of Dash 8s so the prospect of 2 hours each way north and back to Brisbane was daunting. I had to cull my camera bag to meet the requirements for cabin luggage - I won't put camera gear in the hold. It was very cloudy in Brisbane but much clearer and warmer in Barcaldine. We travelled from the airfield to town by Outback Aussie Tours bus, a most interesting Man 4x4 truck cab/chassis with a special bus built on it for touring. I stepped out of the bus into the street and was stunned by the Memorial to the Tree of Knowledge. It was so large, ugly and imposing on the streetscape that I couldn't believe my eyes. I asked what it was supposed to represent - the canopy of the original tree back in 1891! Have you ever seen a square black tree canopy? I haven't. This monstrosity dwarfs everything else in the street. You walk out of the railway station and you're under the canopy of this building. The remains of the Tree of Knowledge are in the centre of this space. When you look up you see hundreds of pieces of wood the ends of which are cut into triangles and painted white. The movement of these wood pieces is supposed to be the leaves moving on the breeze. You'd need a more imaginative mind than mine to see this.
The steam train carrying the Premier was running 25 minutes late, so we had to hang around and wait. I wandered onto the station and caught the steam train arriving. It was engine 1709 a BB 18 1/4 ton class and it carries the Queensland 150th anniversary logos and sponsors. We had to sit (stand in my case) through so many speeches (mostly Labor) that my mind was ready for any diversion... Two wedgetail eagles flew past the monstrosity and played over the houses behind the Railway and Artesian Hotels. I tried to capture them with my camera...much more interesting and meaningful. Did you know the Queensland Labor party is the 'longest' in the world? Anna Bligh (Qld Premier) said this in her speech. She must have missed something out because it didn't make any sense. I wandered over to the bus because it interested me, and I spoke to the driver Trevor about it and the trips its does. It was very hot and there was little shade in the street. The bus created a little shade so I used it. Finally we were on our way by road to Longreach (108km), lunch was served in packs similar to Qantas meals, while Alan Smith gave us detailed information on the area we were passing through. Alan and wife Sue are the owners of Outback Aussie Tours and they pride themselves on the tours and information they offer to their clents. They are members of the Savannah Guides association which ensures the information given is correct. As a 'truckie' I enjoyed this part of the day. The bus is equipped with a forward facing camera and a large screen at the front so you may watch what is happening in front of the bus. The side windows are large so you can take in the scenery. We saw the tail (now orange from sun damage) of the Qantas 747 from some distance out of town. Minister Garrett and most of us on board wanted to 'do a lap' of Longreach but our carer said we must go directly to the Founders Museum as the Premier was already there (she flew in her government aeroplane). So we reluctantly turned into the Longreach Airport entrance and got off the bus. The sun was already sitting low in the sky, it was very hot. A little time was spent inside the museum before the announcement ceremony started. We had to stand in the hot sun to listen and capture photographs (or words). I realised we only had 20 minutes left before boarding time for our flight back to Brisbane. I asked a member of the board of the Founders Museum if I could go into the original QANTAS hangar and take some photographs, yes. A guide took me via the museum across to the hangar (I kept stopping him so I could quickly fire off shots) which is being returned to its original condition and purpose (for display purposes). I took some photographs in the hangar and then raced over to photograph the 707 and 747 where they now reside. It was difficult to get decent angles due to the setting sun and placement of aeroplanes, ground equipment and shrubbery. I felt that if I'd been sent directly to Longreach in the morning rather than going to Barcaldine I could have had enough time to decently cover the wonderful work of the Qantas Foundation Memorial Limited. This is a privately funded group working to record and show the interesting history of QANTAS. LIke all such groups it is finding it difficult to get enough money to carry out its work. Stages one and two have been completed but there is much more work to do. The aeroplanes need a cover to stop the constant damage from the sun, this is vital. The reason for our trip: federal Minister Garrett was announcing the original QANTAS hangar was being added to the National Heritage List. He handed over a plaque to the Chairman of the Fundation to confirm the announcement. It was well received by the Museum and the Queensland Government. Tthe museum was hoping to receive a fat cheque to go along with the announcement - sadly no money was handed over. There were light refreshments under the left wing of the DC-3 before we boarded our Dash 8-400 for the flight to Brisbane. I hung around until my flight to Canberra which arrived at 8.50pm. The end of a long day of air travel and only a very short time on the ground at Longreach for me to cover a wonderful aviation project.
I met some interesting people on my trip but I wouldn't want to travel so far in a day again wthout good reason. My spiritual home is in outback Queensland and I'd have liked more time there. Longreach is 1189km from Brisbane so it is not a trip you make lightly. The Qantas Founders museum deserves more time to do justice to a trip out there. I feel cheated and yet without the Minister's announcement I wouldn't have been there at all... Stewart drove to Sydney on Monday to attend a demo of the Hawker 4000 at Hawker Pacific, Mascot. He had an enjoyable time and got home late afternoon. The rest of the week was spent working on AERO and getting things back in shape here after all our travels. I wish the temperatures weren't so near winter's but more like outback Qld's... (13/08/07) If you're visiting Brisbane please don't use Black & White Taxis. I rang their number to book a taxi to the airport. I was told by the 'troll' that they had my address and a car had been booked. Twenty minutes later I rang again to be told my call was logged and a car would be sent immediately. Ten minutes later (and an hour to my flight leaving) I was informed by an ignorant person that 'I' gave them the wrong address and shouldn't have used the automated system. I couldn't get a word in edgewise with this male person who hung up on me! Great, high and dry and less than a hour to make my flight. I grabbed the Yellow Pages and found Yellow Cabs, rang the number and waited until I reached a human voice. The lovely lady couldn't believe my experience, checked the address (correct) and sent the first cab she could find to me. Thankfully he was prompt and I caught my flight with no time to spare. Mum has removed Black & White's number from her telephone and replaced it with Yellow Cabs. Just proves my theory, you can't trust technology. If you know me I don't use ATMs, won't do transactions online and try to do most things the old and proven ways. I would be lucky to catch a taxi one or two times a year, usually one that pulls in front of you at an airport - so I don't have experience with automated systems. You can guess that I won't ever use them again, can't you! If you're looking for the latest AERO Australia this is what it looks like:
......................................................................................................................... The AERO Australia web site address is www.aero-oz.com.au. Looking for AERO covers to check if you have them all? Don't forget to check our events page for interesting aviation shows or activities. |
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