VH-UNT   Genairco                                         (c/n  11)

                                                                        
                                         
                                       VH-UNT was built in the Genairco hangar at Mascot in April 1930 and fitted with a Cirrus Hermes.
                                       (These aircraft were often called Genairco Moths)   It was bought new by airline pioneer Keith Virtue
                                       and the following year registered to his New England Airways at Lismore NSW.    The photo above
                                       is via Bruce Robinson, whilst the somewhat blurry one below (at least showing the whole aircraft) is
                                       from the Frank Walters collection.  .Below that is a photo from the Ipswich (Qld) City Library collec-
                                       tion and the caption reads:  "Before the air crash in Herb Dutney's sorgum patch near Rosewood. The
                                       plane was owned by Constable Appleby* who would take people for joy  rides".    The panoramic 
                                       scene (photo no. 4) is another from the Bruce Robinson collection and shows it at an air show at
                                       Lismore in 1931 (the year I was born), whilst owned by Virtue.  VH-UNT crashed at Evans Head,
                                       NSW on 1 April 1934 and was stricken off the register.   Ross Stenhouse provides the newspaper
                                       image of it at the foot of the page.  Another lapse of CofA occurred in May 1936.      It was then
                                        acquired by F.E.Biffen of Casino, NSW and a new CofA applied for in August of 1938.  
                                       When this was issued the aircraft was re-registered VH-UZR (unusual for Australia, at that time). 
                                  *   The Register states that it was not registered to T.J. Appleby until May 1934, a month after the Evans
                                       Head crash, so whether it crashed again (quite likely) in the hands of Constable Appleby is not explicitly
                                       spelled out.