VH-TOC  Short S.45 Solent 2                        (c/n S.1308)

                               

                                     From the Geoff Goodall collection comes this shot of VH-TOC on the River Derwent at Hobart,
                                     circa 1952.  It was one of four* purchased in the early 1951s by Trans Oceanic Airways to be
                                     used on on two different routes.  One service was from Sydney to Hobart, Tasmani, while the
                                     other, longer run, went north from Sydney to Port Moresby, New Guinea.  Previously G-AHIV,
                                     VH-TOC was originally named 'City of Hobart' and later "Star of Papua' when the Hobart run
                                     was terminated and services to New Guinea remained the airline's only route.   VH-TOC was
                                     written off on the Brisbane River on 28 October 1951 when it collided with the ship 'Platypus II'.
                                     *   The first of the four, G-AKNO ,crashed at Malta in January 1951 during the delivery fl;ight
                                     and hence never joined the fleet.   It was to have become VH-TOA.