Warbird Information Exchange

Bankstown aviation museum is to close which is a crying shame.

Bankstown airport museum was built in late 1990s and became operational early 2000s but it soon to move to Camden airport (2hr drive away) where the public exposure and accessability will be degraded ....as that is 3hr drive for some people, where Bankstown was in centre of Sydney and accessable by almost anyone.

Bankstown Airport located in the inner south west of Sydney, was once Sydney second major airport with military operations in WW2 with USAAF P-40s based there.. and after the war major manufacturing of Vampire jets and other planes.
Civil aviation took off alot more after ww2 also. Warbird flourished too over the years. Even a Lancaster dropped in the 1960s.

So the airport has a big military heritage and civil heritage also.

A few number of DC-3 and warbirds used to fly out of the airport until mid 2005 as i recall but since 2005 hardly any fly... mainly due to economic enviroment and the airport privates owners who charge high fees .....

Bankstown museum has a medium sized collection...with notable items such as a Canberra bomber, Mirage, C-47, and other types.

In this tough economy, hopefully this is not a growing trend, but I have seen too many groups forced out of their hangars or off the property all together due to economic pressures. Support your local warbird groups or you may not have them much longer! Even if it is just a matter of voting in local elections when they are trying to close those small, insignificant, local airfields. Since 911, the pressure on closing down small fields has been terrible and thus the small operators and museums have it that much harder.

Regarding Bankstown Museum I think the move is more to do with the developers wanting the land to put industrial units on rather than economic factors. They have been getting squashed in and restricted for a while now. Camden airport is a nice spot.
Anyone know what is happening with the museum at Narrellan?

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The Camden Museum of Aviation at Narrellan is in the hands of a family trust following the deaths of its founders, the trust is currently running volunteer weekends sorting, cleaning and preparing the museum for re-opening in 2009.

It is expected to remain on its current site, which it owns, having moved off the Camden Airport many years ago.

There have been various rumours and suggestions it would:
Move to Temora
Move back to Camden
Move to HARS

That most recent suggestion, which was reported in a magazine article, prompted the following:

http://www.camdenmuseumofaviation.com.au/






It is unfortunate if the Australian Aviation Museum at Bankstown is being forced to relocate to Camden, although there little mention of that situation on their website.



The museum owns the historic Kingsford Smith Air Services Hangar relocated to Bankstown from Mascot, as well as 24 aircraft including a C-47, HS 748, Twin Pioneer, and a number of other aircraft on loan from the Navy Museum at Nowra, in addition it had been storing a number of other C-47's on behalf of a defunct Tourist charter airline.

The logistics of relocating buildings, aircraft and archives is not easy, and is costly, I am not sure if BAL is evicting the Museum to make way for development (and therefore providing relocation compensation), or alternatively just indicating it will not renew its lease?

Operation at Camden will risk reduced revenues, and loss of some existing volunteers due to increased travelling time, despite Camden being an attractive site, and perhaps offering lower costs and long term tenure, I hope the relocation is successful.

It is difficult to imagine in this current financial climate that BAL have an urgent development planned for the site?

http://www.aamb.com.au/

I wish both museums a long and secure future, and success in their current efforts.


Regards

Mark Pilkington

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20th Century - The Age of Manned Flight
"from Wrights to Armstrong in 66 years -WOW!"