Bri,
it IS a CAC Sabre, A94-983.
We passed some of our Sabres to Indonesia and also to the Malaysian AF, the main reason we passed Sabres to Indonesia was to try and improve what were at the time very very strained relations between Australia and Indonesia, as we had more or less come to the brink of war during the 1960’s.

It also benefitted the RAAF as they knew that should it have come to a shooting match again during the Sabre’s service with the TNI-AU that we would have the superior fighter in the form of the Mirage III.

I know about the strained relations, as I was involved, serving in RAAF Darwin at the time! Not a lot of people know this, but one week we had the biggest exercise ever, with virtually every aircraft the RAAF had visiting. Canberras, Sabres, Hercs, Dakotas the lot.

The ‘enemy’ leader (!) transitted the base while it was on. Then, as soon as he left, all the planes were flown back to base. I understand he was given a tour of the bases after he left us. Presumably all this was to make him think we had a much larger air force!

Incidentally, it was touch and go whether the CAC Sabres would make it to Darwin. We were told that if there was a more than 5 knot headwind, they would have to turn back. As it was, they landed with only kerosene fumes in the tanks and some had to be towed off the runway.

I was doing turn-around servicing on the Hercs, and spent so much time working, fell asleep standing up when entering fuel states!

Bri 🙂

PS: I worked on A84-232 on 2 Squadron and at 3AD. I remember it well!