VH-BIS  de Havilland D.H.82A Tiger Moth            (c/n  845)

                              

                                     This rare photograph by Daryl Mackenzie (via the Barrie Colledge collection) shows a Royal
                                     Victorian Aero Club Tiger at Essendon, before the club moved to the new aerodrome at
                                     Moorabbin (which opened in 1949).   In fact, this aircraft never did make the move since
                                     it was destroyed in a fire at Essendon on 22 January 1949.    This machine was the former
                                     RAAF's A17-713, and was one of the aircraft ostensibly built for the RATG (Rhodesian
                                     Air Training Group) and to have been DX802, but diverted instead to the RAAF.