VH-BQR  Percival P.34A Proctor III                        (c/n  K.392)

                                     

                                          The shots above and immediately below are by Macarthur Job.  The lower image illustrates the
                                          combined fleet of the Bush Church Aid Society based at Ceduna in the far west of SA, circa
                                          1956.   The BCAS was a Church of England organization which provided medical support to
                                          people in the Australian outback, carrying a doctor and nurse on regular clinic runs to remote
                                          settlements as well as emergency evacuations.  Macarthur was a pilot for the concern in those
                                          days.   VH-BQR had been built during WW2 for the RAF as a Mk.II serialed Z7203, and was
                                          modified in military service to a Mk.III.  It was civilianized in the UK as G-ALIS and imported
                                          into Australia early in 1952.  The Dragon VH-AGI was replaced by Lockheed 12A VH-FMS
                                          and the Proctor replaced by a Cessna 210.    The BCAS Ceduna operation was later taken over
                                          by the RFDS     Photo # 3, by Geoff Goodall, the Proctor is seen at Bunbury, WA Technical in
                                          April 1969            It had been sold by BCAS in January 1960 to WA farmer Frank Lawrence
                                          of Benjaberring, just prior to DCA announcing a range of severe airworthiness inspections for
                                          British aircraft of wooden construction.  VH-BQR was flown by Lawrence from his farm strip
                                          to Maylands aerodrome, Perth for its annual CofA renewal on 31 March 1962, when the new
                                          DCA wood joint tests revealed glue adhesion breakdown which proved uneconomical to repair.
                                          He donated the aircraft to the Bunbury school as an instructional airframe, where it was moved
                                          by road.        After years in the open, the Proctor fell into poor condition and was saved by the
                                          Airforce Association Aviation Museum group in Perth.   It is seen in the shot at the foot of the
                                          page at the AFA Bateman Estate in December 1972 being loaded on a truck to be moved to
                                          a member's home in the Perth suburb of Riverton where it commenced a 30 year restoration
                                          for display at the museum, where it resides today in RAF markings