VH-URY
de Havilland D.H.84 Dragon II
(c/n 6082)
The above photograph shows -URY at Eagle Farm, Brisbane,
circa 1950 in TAA livery while it
was being operated for the
Flying Doctor Service of Australia and bearing the name 'John Flynn'
on the nose. Below it
is seen in more halcyon
days just after it had been
delivered to MacRobertson
Miller Aviation of Perth in
1934,
along with sister craft VH-URW and VH-URX. The two gentlemen
in
attendance are the
pilots who normally flew these machines -
Messrs G. McCausland and Bert
Hussey. It was
sold to Airlines (WA) Ltd
in 1938 (named 'Murchison')
and the image at the foot
of the page illustrates it
at Port Hedland, circa 1938. This
Dragon was impressed by the RAAF in
July 1940 and delivered from Perth to Parafield on 18
July 1940 by company manager Charles
Snook. At Parafield it was
taken over by the RAAF becoming A34-6, but later
released to DCA
for civil
disposal. It
joined Qantas in 1943 who were at the time operating
the Flying Doctor Service.
The image of it at the bottom of this
entry from the Bernadette May collection shows it whilst with
Qantas, circa late
1940s. The
Flying Doctor service was taken
over by TAA
in July 1949.
VH-URY crashed on
Cheviot Hills, Queensland on 22 October 1953. The Pilot and
the Doctor's
wife were killed with 3
others surviving. All photos except the last one are from
the Geoff
Goodall
collection.