VH-FED  Auster IIIF                                 (c/n  430)

                                 

                                  .  This aircraft had been built for the RAF during WW II with the serial NX494.   It was sent to the
                                     RAAF in April 1945 and became A11-32.   Its  first civilian registration was VH-BDL issued in
                                     1948.    After various periods of being on and off the register it went to Mandated Airlines in PNG
                                     in 1952 and became VH-MAD.  Upon going south again in 1954 it was re-registered VH-FED.
                                     Bob Neate's shot above shows it at Bathurst, NSW in 1962     It was destroyed in January of 1967
                                     when it crashed into a hangar at Wodonga,Victoria.  In Geoff Goodall's hangar shot below, taken
                                     at Albury in September 1965, its Taylorcraft heritage was readily apparent.