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- History
- Albury and Aviation were to share in News Headlines around the world when in 1934 a participant in the London to Melbourne Centenary Air Race became lost in severe thunder storms in the final leg of the journey. Towards midnight on October 23 the Dutch Douglas airliner "Uiver" began circling Albury seeking bearings. Establishing communication, Corowa radio station 2CO broadcasted appeals to motorists to assemble at the Albury Racecourse to light the fields with their headlights. The plane in torrential rain on a runway of two hundred yards made a perfect landing. The next morning 300 spectators gathered to pull out by ropes the now bogged plane. The pilots Parmentier and Moll jettisoned everything including mail and passengers to lift the "stork" and go on to win the handicap section and outright second place in the great air race. Suddenly Australia was less than 4 days from the "Old Country". With the rapid development in aviation a site was chosen for the Albury aerodrome in 1937, 1 1/2 miles from town.
- Sights
- KLM Airliner "Uiver" Monument In saving the "Uiver" the people of Albury cemented a friendship with the Dutch people. The Mayor of Albury was appointed to the Dutch Order of Oranje-Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and the people of Holland subscribed to a memorial to be placed in Albury as a token of their appreciation. The Dutch Consul-General came to Albury to invest the Major and personally present a gift to all who had assisted in the saving of the plane. Albury West Rotary Club in Rotary's 75th Anniversary Year purchased a dismantled Douglas DC Aircraft a and restored it as the KLM Airliner "Uiver". The unique Aircraft is now situated at the Albury Airport with Bronze plaques that tell the story of this famous rescue. It can be viewed, at no cost and at any time.
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