11 March, 2011 3:36PM AEDT
Catalina returns to make a splash
By Lara van Raay and Charlotte King
Lake Boga's community cheered as they witnessed a restored Catalina complete a touch-and-go on Monday, an event that enthusiast Dick Peel has been waiting 63 years to see.
Video here:
Catalina returns to make a splash - ABC Mildura - Swan Hill Victoria - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Lake Boga was an integral part of allied defence during World War II, operating as a Flying Boat Repair and Service Depot from 1942 to 1948.
Located over 300 kilometres inland, it seems like an unlikely place to find a depot intrinsic to the Australian war effort; countless flying boats would land here, riddled with bullets from the Phillippines and the South Pacific.
But Dick Peel, from Lake Boga's Flying Boat Museum, says it made for the ideal spot. "Perfectly round, you got no stumps, no trees no mountains to worry about - and it was far enough inland that to be attacked by the enemy, they'd have to come off an aircraft carrier, and they'd have to be well down in the Southern Ocean or nearly half way to New Zealand not to be detected - and they were out of range."
Recalling his first trip on a Catalina at the tender age of 12, Dick, now 78, has had a lifelong love of this unique flying boat - and it shows.
Dick has waited 63 years to see a Catalina complete a touch-and-go here, and judging by his reaction - and that of the community who showed up to witness the event, organised by the Historical Aircraft Resoration Society (HARS) - it seems it was worth the wait.