VH-EAY  DHC-3 Otter                           (c/n  253)

                                  

                                        Here's a delightful color shot from the Ben Dannecker collection of a Qantas Otter at Goroka in
                                        1959.  Originally Beavers replaced the aging Drovers on some of Qantas' internal PNG routes
                                        but these were upgraded to Otters in 1958, four of them being acquired from de Havillands in
                                        Canada.   -EAY was the third delivered.  When the Australian Government transferred the New
                                        Guinea domestic operations to their own  Trans Australia Airlines in 1960, VH-EAY became
                                        VH-SBS, registered in the latter airline's 'TAA Sunbird Service' series.  .  It was written off when
                                         it crashed near Mendi, PNG on 2 December 1961.