G-AUCJ  Avro 504K                                        (c/n  [E3432])

                                     

                                          Standing outside the hangar of its owner at Belmont Common, Victoria, is this ancient
                                          504K, first registered on 28 June, 1921.  (It was Australia's 15th civil aircraft).  Avro
                                          504Ks did not have c/ns per se, but merely used their military serial numbers.  G-AUCJ
                                          crashed on landing at Belmont Common on Christmas Day, 1922.  It was not a total
                                          write off although the registration was changed afterwards to be that of C.D. Pratt of
                                          Geelong, one of the propreitors of Geelong Air Service.   Whether it was actually made
                                          airworthy again is not recorded, but it was not officially stricken from the register until July
                                          of 1929.    The above image is via the archives of Museum Victoria Collections.