Historian and maker of small scale model aeroplanes
Just published by BHS Publishing is my latest book, Western Airways, Flying in Western Australia 1919-1941. It is a massaged version of my PhD thesis which is about exactly what the title says. I think it’s pretty good and interesting, but I may be biased. For publication details and how to get a copy download … More Western Airways
(September 2021) INTRODUCTION Many modellers like to tell stories with their models and do it in the form of dioramas or vignettes which describe in model form a moment in time and the people, machines and places of that moment. In this way one model and its setting tell one story. I also like to … More Royal Australian Air Force Mirage IIIs, 1963 to 1989, in 1/72 by Frog.
Due to something that I don’t quite understand, after our tv set and Fetch box were setup here we can only watch broadcast tv by pressing a couple of buttons on one of the remote controls, and that is confusing enough that we don’t bother. So the only stuff that we have watched has … More Netflix Notes
Attached is a PDF of an item I wrote for the MoB’s newsletter in 2014 about assembling the resin Planet 1/72 Arsenal Delanne using Blu Tack to create a jig.
By way of introduction. The evening activities around here involve some tv watching, mostly streaming from Netflix. I thought I’d make some notes occasionally on some of what we watch so I don’t forget it all completely Blackhat is a movie that appeared on Netflix after having been around for a while. They must … More Netflix Notes
(April 2021, originally in ANZAPA 320) For my sins – and they must have been serious infractions for me to be doing this – I’ve spent the past three or four weeks trawling the newszines that have been scanned and saved on the Fanac.org website. There are an awful lot of them. There … More Trawling old Newszines
(May 2021) Introduction The following was written just before the Covid 19 lock-down arrived in Victoria. Bruce Gillespie published it in an issue of SF Commentary but I have not placed it here yet because Bruce did not use the pictures that I wanted to use, and I wanted to make sure that Stephen was … More Stephen Campbell at the Warrnambool Art Gallery
While rummaging around in the hidden recesses of my computer I came across this article that I put together in June 2001. It is about how the Australian civil aviation industry came to have what was called the ‘Two Airline Policy’ which controlled the development of Australian air transport for four decades from the beginning … More For Whom the Cash Register Rings – the origins of Australia’s ‘Two Airline Policy’
(29 June 2021) I was asked to give an address as part of the ceremony to mark the centenary of government administration of civil aviation in Australia which took place on Sunday 28 March 2021. Other speakers at the ceremony were Jason Harfield, CEO of Airservices Australia, Greg Hood, Chief Commissioner of the ATSB, David … More Launching civil aviation in Australia
Leigh Edmonds little box of stuff 