Queensland Air Museum

About

The Queensland Air Museum is a not-for-profit all-volunteer aviation museum located in the Caloundra Airport precinct in Queensland, Australia. Its mission is to collect and preserve all aspects of aviation heritage with an emphasis on Australia and Queensland and to display these for the enrichment of the public. The museum has the largest and most diverse collection of historic aircraft in Australia and it also has a large collection of aircraft engines, equipment, artefacts, photographs, uniforms and books. In 2025, the museum was operated by 185 active volunteers, who contributed in excess of 38,000 hours of volunteer labour to the museum that year.

On 2 June 1974, the Queensland Air Museum was inaugurated with the official unveiling of a Canberra bomber (A84-225) that had been purchased from a Government disposal. The aircraft was moved by volunteers from RAAF Base Amberley to be displayed at the Pioneer Valley Park, a museum at Kuraby in Brisbane's southern suburbs. The park was eventually closed and the aircraft was moved to a leased site at Nudgee on the north side of Brisbane. The collection began to grow when a Meteor TT20 was donated to the museum by the British Government and a Vampire and two Sea Venoms were acquired.

Due to the construction of the new Brisbane Airport nearby, the collection was forced to move to a temporary holding area on the airport site. Exorbitant rental costs at this location eventually lead to the museum being evicted and the resultant publicity resulted in an offer of a permanent home on the Sunshine Coast by the Landsborough Shire Council (now Sunshine Coast Regional Council Division 1). On 14 June 1986, the collection was relocated to a site adjacent to Caloundra Aerodrome with a newly built hangar. The official opening of the museum took place on 4 April 1987 by Mrs Ly Bennett, museum patron and widow of the museum's patron, the late Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett. Don Bennett was the Queensland-born founder and commander of the World War II Bomber Command Pathfinder Force. In honour of this, the road in front of the museum was named Pathfinder Drive.

Now with a permanent home, the collection continued to grow and in 1989, it was bolstered by an ambitious recovery expedition to Sentosa Island, Singapore where a Sea Vixen, Meteor and Hunter were purchased from a scrap metal dealer just days before their destruction. The aircraft were disassembled and successfully shipped to Australia, where they were restored and placed on display.

The two hectare museum site has been steadily developed with the construction of a second hangar being completed in July 2004, which was later extended in 2006. A library, restoration workshops and storage facilities have also been constructed. In September 2006, Mr Allan Vial, DFC OAM OPR (Pol), became patron of the Queensland Air Museum. He was also Life President of the Queensland Pathfinder Force Association in Australia.

A plan to relocate Caloundra Aerodrome placed an uncertain future on the museum for many years. On 2 September 2010, the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced in Parliament that the airport would continue to operate on its present site and she said this would provide "certainty for the iconic air museum". The museum's situation further improved when the Sunshine Coast Regional Council granted the museum a 30-year lease extension and on 28 March 2013, a Caloundra Aerodrome Master Plan was adopted. The Plan recognised the museum's tourism potential and its importance as a heritage organisation.

In August 2013, former Australian Defence Force Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Geoff Shepard AM (retd.) became the patron of the museum. Upon his retirement, Air Vice-Marshal Julie Hammer AM (retd,) became QAM patron in August 2023.

In 2024, the museum celebrated 50 years of operation and took the opportunity to develop a Strategic Plan 2024-2030 which includes a Jubilee Infrastructure Master Plan. This ambitious plan seeks to completely redevelop the infrastructure on site to ensure that the collection can best be preserved for the next 50 years. The redevelopment brief takes into consideration the provision of expanded safe, climate-controlled facilities to cater for the collection, the volunteer workforce and the 25,000 visitors who come through the museum each year.

The museum's aircraft collection is made up of a large variety of aircraft types that represent many aspects of aviation.

Military aircraft represent the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Navy (RN), Republic of Singapore Air Force and Polish Air Force. Passenger aircraft types represent Australian and Papua New Guinean airlines, such as Ansett Airlines, Trans Australia Airlines, Bush Pilots Airways, Queensland Airlines, Queensland Pacific Airways, Airlines of NSW, Airlines of Tasmania, Ansett-MAL and Mandated Airlines.

Australian designed or produced aircraft are represented by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation Wirraway, Winjeel and Sabre, de Havilland Drover and Vampire, Government Aircraft Factories Jindivik, Turana and Canberra, Kingsford Smith Aviation Service Cropmaster, Transavia Airtruk, Victa Airtourer and Calair Skyfox.

Other aircraft represent agricultural aircraft, training aircraft, helicopters, naval aircraft and de Havilland Aircraft Company types.

The first powered aircraft to be designed and built in Queensland was the Wicko Cabin Sports. It was a wood and fabric monoplane designed and built by Geoff Wikner and it first took to the air in January 1931 from Archerfield Airport in Brisbane. The Queensland Air Museum obtained copies of the original plans of this significant aircraft and constructed a replica, which went on display at the museum in 2007.

The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation's Wirraway has been described as the aircraft that established a viable Australian aircraft industry. The Wirraway was essentially a license built North American NA-16 which was simplified to suit Australian industrial capacity & capabilities of the time, and manufactured between 1939 and 1946. With 755 manufactured, it is the second most produced aircraft type in Australia. Deliveries to the RAAF began just months before the outbreak of World War II and they served in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Borneo areas against the Japanese in tactical reconnaissance, target marking, dive bombing and army co-operation roles. They were also used by the RAAF as an advanced trainer throughout the war and for many years after with their retirement from service in 1958.

The example in the Queensland Air Museum collection is A20-652 construction number 1104. It was built in July 1944 in the final production batch which had the designation of CA-16. The museum purchased the aircraft with a grant from the John Villiers Trust in October 2010. It was flown from Adelaide, South Australia to Caloundra and placed on display in a flyable condition. The aircraft is maintained to preserve it in an operational condition and it is run in the regular Operation Engine Collection public displays.

The F-111 aircraft was the RAAF's premier strike asset for 37 years until the type's retirement in December 2010. It was operated by 1 and 6 Squadrons for all of that time from the RAAF Base Amberley near Ipswich, Queensland. The aircraft had the ability to perform a " dump and burn " which involved dumping fuel from an outlet between the engine jet pipes and igniting it with the engine's afterburners. The spectacular flame produced was popular at air shows, sporting events and firework displays, such as the annual Brisbane River Fire firework show and the 2000 Sydney Olympics closing ceremony.

The Queensland Air Museum has F -111C aircraft A8-129 on display, which is on long-term loan from the RAAF. This aircraft was in the first group to arrive in Australia on 1 June 1974 and it also flew in the final operational flight of the type on 3 December 2010. The aircraft is painted in its delivery camouflaged colour scheme with 1 Squadron markings on one side and 6 Squadron on the other.

The first powered aircraft to be designed and built in Queensland was the Wicko Cabin Sports. It was a wood and fabric monoplane designed and built by Geoff Wikner and it first took to the air in January 1931 from Archerfield Airport in Brisbane. The Queensland Air Museum obtained copies of the original plans of this significant aircraft and constructed a replica, which went on display at the museum in 2007.

The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation's Wirraway has been described as the aircraft that established a viable Australian aircraft industry. The Wirraway was essentially a license built North American NA-16 which was simplified to suit Australian industrial capacity & capabilities of the time, and manufactured between 1939 and 1946. With 755 manufactured, it is the second most produced aircraft type in Australia. Deliveries to the RAAF began just months before the outbreak of World War II and they served in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Borneo areas against the Japanese in tactical reconnaissance, target marking, dive bombing and army co-operation roles. They were also used by the RAAF as an advanced trainer throughout the war and for many years after with their retirement from service in 1958.

The example in the Queensland Air Museum collection is A20-652 construction number 1104. It was built in July 1944 in the final production batch which had the designation of CA-16. The museum purchased the aircraft with a grant from the John Villiers Trust in October 2010. It was flown from Adelaide, South Australia to Caloundra and placed on display in a flyable condition. The aircraft is maintained to preserve it in an operational condition and it is run in the regular Operation Engine Collection public displays.