Twixt Tassie and New Zealand

We attended another performance of Opera Scholars Australia, this time in an aircraft hangar at Albury Airport.

The performance was very much the same as the one we saw recently at the Meatworks in Melbourne. The biggest difference was the inclusion of the Scots School Pipe Band. They opened and closed the evening.

The stage was set up in front of a DC-2 aircraft in the process of being restored. In fact, this night was a fundraiser for the restoration.

The project is to commemorate the connection between the Dutch DC-2, the Uiver, and the town and people of Albury. The aim of the project is to create a permanent, sustainable museum to commemorate the historic Albury landing of the KLM DC-2 during the 1934 London to Melbourne air race. This is to be achieved by
*Restoring a DC-2 aircraft to form the focus of a museum
*Establishing a museum to house the aircraft and related displays
*Enabling ongoing education of our community, students and visitors to ensure that the “Uiver story” remains prominent in our history.

In the 1934 MacRobertson Trophy Air Race, on the final leg from Charleville to Melbourne, the KLM DC-2 Uiver (meaning ‘stork’ in Dutch), flew into an electrical storm and became lost, as the lightning was interfering with navigation equipment and radio communications.
Captain Parmentier turned east for the coast hoping to cross the Great Dividing Range, but with ice forming on the wings and propellors, was forced to turn back. He turned south again and was heard going over Goulburn, Wagga Wagga and Albury. Race headquarters managed some contact with the Uiver and told them to fly to Cootamundra.
Late in the night residents of farms at Tawonga heard the plane flying south towards Mount Bogong and contacted local ABC radio station 2CO, who contacted race headquarters in Melbourne. Fortunately the Uiver changed course to the north-east and over Tallangatta the Uiver turned towards Albury.
Race headquarters in Melbourne asked Albury newspaper sub-editor, Clifton Mott, to flash a light in Morse code. Mott met with Municipal Electrical Engineer, Lyle Ferris and they bumped into District Postal Inspector, Reg Turner, who knew Morse code. All three went to the Albury electrical sub-station where they signalled A-L-B-U-R-Y in Morse code by turning the town’s street lights on and off.
Arthur Newnham, the 2CO Radio announcer, called for cars to go to the Albury Racecourse to light a makeshift runway using their headlights to guide the plane to land, as there was no airport in Albury. About 80 cars arrived. Remarkably, Newnham's broadcast went out at 12:54 am, and after circling the racecourse twice and dropping parachute flares, the Uiver was safely on the ground by 1:17 am!
The Uiver had successfully landed, but ended up stuck deep in mud.
The stalwart crew were determined to finish the race, for the good name of KLM and the Netherlands, so about 300 Albury residents gathered from daybreak to help pull the aircraft out of the mud and send them on their way.
The Uiver continued the race to place second outright, but they had a choice of prize and so they chose first prize in the handicap section.Read more