Was on the committee of the Melbourne branch of the Royal Air Forces Association last year, they organise the BoB parade at the Shrine. We were told at some point in time that the RAAF would do a flypast, but this was subsequently cancelled. They did provide a band for the parade and a flypast of aircraft from the Point Cook historic flight. Plus the Victorian Aero Club did a superb formation fly-past. For all of which we were extremely grateful.
I wrote to Sen Faulkner at the instigation of the RAFA Chairman and received a reply from a Grp Capt Henrik Ehlers stating:
Thank you for your recent e-mail to the Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon John Faulkner, concerning the Royal Australian Air Force’s support of the Battle of Britain Commemoration Parade in Melbourne on 20 September 2009. The Minister has requested Air Force Headquarters respond on his behalf.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) will be supporting this event with a flypast of historic RAAF Museum aircraft (a Winjeel, a Harvard, and a CT4) and performances by the Air Force Band. Please be aware that the Royal Air Forces Association request for an Air Force Roulettes flypast, which was considered by the Air Force Public Relations Assets Planning Committee on 5 June 2009, was unable to be supported due to scheduling and resource constraints. As such, Roulette participation was not cancelled; it was not able to be scheduled in the first place.
The RAAF endeavours to support as many public events such as this as it can, but it is not always possible to satisfy all requests.
The primary participation from the RAAF to the Battle of Britain commemorations in Australia is to the Royal Australian Air Force Association officially-endorsed events held in Hobart. We endeavour to support to other events around Australia, where feasible.
I wish you and your association well for a successful commemoration on Sunday, where the RAAF will proudly participate with the RAAF Museum and RAAF Band.
It was a good parade with a good turnout.