Maroochydore Dump

OVER THE SIDE

I have seen in recent months documentary clips showing RN types unceremoniously shoving perfectly serviceable airframes, Corsairs/RN markings and the like, over the side of some unnamed carrier, no other explanation was given other than this was being done as a stipulation of the lend lease agreement and apparently involved a fair number of aircraft, it did not indicate were this took place or when, however considering that a large number of surplus airframes ended up parked at various locations in Australia it would be of no surprise to find the RN collecting same and tossing them overboard off the Queensland coast, Old chestnut or not even if they had been located it would be doubtful unless conditions were exactly right that anything at all was worth the costs involved in salvaging these airframes, probably cheaper to buy one off the US racing circuit and rebuild it back too original spec.

All is true and much has been written. There are a series of photos from Royal Navy ooficial photogrphers at that time. Mostly show hellcats, avengers & the odd Barracuda, seafire going to the deep. There is a nother thread somewhere in the forum but you need to follow HMS Persues and HMS Pioneer information. Also look at ozatwar websit on MONABs for more info.
I am interested in gathering more info and phots of that time or any kite dumping at the end of WWII. Anybody out there , please send pici’s.:)

The hole at Archerfield!!

What I have heard is that due to the drought here in Auss the water table has dropped enough for bits to start showing again.
Rest assured there is stuff still around.We are still digging up bits and bobs out at Oakey but only a small percentage of it could be called as usable.A lot of stuff crumples in your hands from rust.Only the stainless steel gun chute bits and the higher quality steels survive well enough these days.On the Fly In weekend last our youngest volunteer had great fun kicking up bits of old Kittyhawks and Spits in the paddocks around the museum.

Have dived a few of those that did not make it back across the channel, out of the four that we looked at and this is over ten years back now a hawker typoon was the only one with any recognisable features, a fortress off beachy head was the last one, torn too shreds now and apart from a single engine nothing in situ though it ditched intact and the crew rowed ashore according to our guide, most of whats left laying around crumbles to dust if touched, Sea Water and airframes is not a good mixture.

I saw the remains of one of the aircraft that had been dumped of the Queensland coast. Caught in a trawler net and they bought it back. Made the TV coverage here. Extremely corroded and not a lot of use for any restoration. From memory I think it might have been a corsair.

The story I have heard here in Brisbane, Queensland is that carriers were tied up at Bretts Whalf and all sorts of stuff was loaded on them, they were taken out to the 30 fathom line and the stuff was pushed over and it was back to do it all over again.

More exciting is what was in the Archerfield (Queensland) hole, I saw oil tanks for mossies, undercarriage legs (badly corroded), 30cal and 50 cal machine guns. rubber seals in good condition. That was about 10 years ago, Most of the stuff was left there and the hole reflooded.

regards
Ross

Have dived a few of those that did not make it back across the channel, out of the four that we looked at and this is over ten years back now a hawker typoon was the only one with any recognisable features, a fortress off beachy head was the last one, torn too shreds now and apart from a single engine nothing in situ though it ditched intact and the crew rowed ashore according to our guide, most of whats left laying around crumbles to dust if touched, Sea Water and airframes is not a good mixture.

The dumping site and the circumstances have been well documented.

Recoveries have been made. The parts, and I have seen some of them at Noosa, are disappointing and did not match up to the initial hype.

Would you go looking for BoB combatants in the English Channel? If so what would you expect?

Mark

I had the complete War Illustrated magazines, published during the period and a couple of post war editions had photo’s of RN aircraft being dumped off carriers “off the coast of Australia”

So that narrows it down to about 10million square miles………

http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozatwar/dumped@sea.htm

You reminded me of another story about dumped WWII equipment, although I’m fairly certain this was true.

A WWII digger (Aussie soldier to UK readers) told me many years ago that a USN aircraft carrier, anchored just off Sydney Heads, was loaded with hundreds of brand new aircraft engines (probably radials) and they were going to dump them as the war was over.

But the Australian government intervened and asked if they could ‘buy’ them. This was refused by the US government, so the captain ordered them shoved overboard anyway!

Brave the sharks and have a look…

Bri:cool:

I have seen in recent months documentary clips showing RN types unceremoniously shoving perfectly serviceable airframes, Corsairs/RN markings and the like, over the side of some unnamed carrier, no other explanation was given other than this was being done as a stipulation of the lend lease agreement and apparently involved a fair number of aircraft, it did not indicate were this took place or when, however considering that a large number of surplus airframes ended up parked at various locations in Australia it would be of no surprise to find the RN collecting same and tossing them overboard off the Queensland coast, Old chestnut or not even if they had been located it would be doubtful unless conditions were exactly right that anything at all was worth the costs involved in salvaging these airframes, probably cheaper to buy one off the US racing circuit and rebuild it back too original spec.