VH-WBS  Auster J/5 Adventurer                                      (c/n  2873)

                              

                                   Shipped to KSAS in March of 1949 where it was registered VH-KSS.  Sold to Gibbes Sepik
                                   Airways in New Guinea who repeatedly bent it until it wound up back with Kingsford Smith in
                                   February of 1951.   Two owners later is was registered to B. Whitelaw of Tibooburra, NSW
                                   who, in 1959,  re-registered it VH-WBS.    By the end of 1968 the Auster was registered to
                                   R.J. Nelson of Seaforth, NSW and then sustained extensive damage in a prang 2 miles east of
                                   Coolah, NSW on 18 December 1971.    It was officially struck off the register in July of 1972
                                   although the bits and pieces are thought still to be extant.   The above shot was taken by Norm
                                   Weeding at an unknown location and date, but probably at Bankstown in the late 60s.       The
                                   shot immediately below is from the Geoff Goodall collection taken while the machine was based
                                   at Bankstown in 1964.  Finally, at the foot of the page is a photo by John Wheatley in the early
                                   1970s just before it was de-registered.