Glenorie Probus Club has had an interesting month. The guest speaker at the monthly meeting was Norman King an ex Qantas Engineer. He told us the story of the recovery of the first Boeing 707 purchase by Qantas in 1959.
It came to the attention of a group of Qantas engineers that the plane was still in existence albeit in a derelict state at Southend Airport in Essex in the UK.
They believed it deserved a better fate and decided to recover it. It took three years of delicate negotiations, thousands of volunteer manhours and close to $2,000,000 to bring it back to Australia of volunteer. His tales were very entertaining including the moment when the missing cockpit door handle fell from a toilet sullage tank. The Airliner VH-XBA now sits at the Qantas Founders Outback Museum in Longreach Queensland.
The clubs activity for the month was a tour of the historic Mint and Hyde Park Barracks. Hyde Park Barracks is a heritage listed former barracks, hospital, convict accommodation, mint, courthouse, and now is preserved as museum.
This is the history of a building originally erected to house convicts and there is still evidence of this original use in the building. The Mint was originally part of Governor Macquarie’s Hospital for convicts. It later became the first branch of the Royal Mint outside London. With good weather assisting this was a very informative and enjoyable day.
The Club meets on the at 11.00am on the 4th Wednesday of the month at Glenorie RSL and new members are welcome. Contact Wendy Black on 9653 1022 or email [email protected]
