VH-URI  de Havilland D.H.83 Fox Moth                      (c/n  4084)

                                 

                                       Dawn Finch provides the shot above were taken at Urandangie, Queensland, circa 1935.  The
                                       Fox Moth was a Flying Doctor Service machine.  Seen below, with the wings folded is a photo
                                       courtesy of the John Oxley Library. State Library of Queensland collection.         It was being
                                       refueled at Croydon, Qld sometime in the 1930s.        The small image below that is from the
                                       National Library of Australia collection, venue or date unknown.
                                       VH-URI  was sold in New Guinea after WW II and was based at Wau in 1952,  passing to
                                       J.K. Gray of Goroka in 1958.    It crashed and was written off at the Lutheran Mission strip
                                       at Boana in PNG in November 1958.       At the foot of the page is a photo from the Robert
                                       Blaikie collection showing -URI after a previous (probably landing) accident a decade earlier
                                       in November 1948.  Clearly it was repaired after this event and went on to fly for several
                                       more years.   Robert, now a Queensland resident, lived in PNG for many years.