VH-EUD  Auster J/1N Alpha                           (c/n  2199)

                               

                                   This aircraft was originally built as a J/1N Autocrat in 1946 and shipped to Southern Rhodesia
                                   as VP-YGB      Some time later it was sold across the Zambezi as VP-RCF     It returned to
                                   Southern Rhodesia in 1955 as VP-YLT before that colony went completely to pot as
                                   Zimbabwe.  The Auster then returned to the UK in 1961 becoming G-ARGT (it had no
                                   prior UK rego before being exported).   Sometime after February 1966 conversion to J/1N
                                   standard took place, this work being completed by April 1968.  The Auster was then flown
                                   to Australia in the December 1969 London-Sydney Air Race (as Race No 57).      It was
                                   noted in a hangar at Bankstown (by Ian O'Neill) as late as December 1971 still as G-ARGT,
                                   and, in fact, was not registered in Australia until March of 1973. . The above shot, from the
                                   Jim Sweeney collection, was taken at Bankstown in 1973, while the photo below, by David
                                   Carter shows it also at Bankstown in 1970 just after it flew in on the Air Race. 
                               .   VH-EUD is still current and lives in Queensland