VH-AAC (1) de Havilland D.H.84 Dragon 1
(c/n 6025)
This Dragon was formerly
G-ACGG, built in 1933 and exported to Mandated Airlines
of Lae in
1938. It was impressed into RAAF
service in 1941 becoming A34-10. Rest-
ored to the
register in 1944, it went to Aircrafts Pty Ltd of Brisbane who were, at
the
time, desperate
for aircraft to maintain a modicum of wartime airline services in
Queens-
land and northern
NSW. This airline operated scheduled services from Brisbane to
Maryborough,
Bundaberg and
Rockhampton to the north and to Casino and Grafton in
the south.
It became Queensland Airlines in 1948. The
above image is courtesy of the
John Oxley
Library, State Library of Queensland. VH-AAC returned to New
Guinea in
June 1948 when APL sold it
to Taylors Air Transport at Lae. It later passed into the hands
of its original
owner, Mandated Airlines and was written off when it crashed at Slate
Creek,
NG in January
1951. The photo below, from the Roger McDonald collection, was
taken
at Archerfield,
circa 1947 while the aircraft was in APL service.