QANTAS Lancastrians flew from Sydney to Gawler, stopping in Adelaide for refuelling, and on to Learmonth for the overnight stage. On the next leg of the trip, they flew to Ratmalana, where the aircraft refuelled, then on to Karachi, where BOAC crews took over for the final segment of the journey to the UK. The lengthening of the runway at Ratmalana enabled the diversion to Minneria to be eliminated, and soon Ratmalana was replaced by RAF Negombo. The service was renamed the Kangaroo Service and the passenger award became The Order of the Longest Hop. It was on this route that the Kangaroo logo was first used. After the war, the return trip could also go from Colombo to the Cocos Islands, then to Perth on to Sydney. These flights continued until 5 April 1946.
In 1947 flights to Tokyo via Darwin and Manila began. The DC-4 took over in 1949 I think. Don't know how many were converted to the Constellation engine transport role.
Dave, EAV was written off during a take off at Sydney 17 Nov 1951. EAU was scrapped Sep 1952, same date for EAT. Link here may be of interest.
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-o...959770/?no-ist