The Museum Of Australian Army Flying was established in Oakey, Queensland back in the mid 1980’s. Then it was merely a back room at the Oakey Army Aviation Base, 3km from the Oakey township. In fact when it began it had no aircraft in its collection. It simply had half a dozen aircraft that were actually on the Oakey base, strategically parked nearby. The majority of these aircraft, a Cessna 180, A98-045, three Bell 47 Sioux, A1-568, -720 and -738, and an O1-G Bird Dog – Bunny II were ex 161 Recce Flt Vietnam aircraft. In the years following its inception, the museum gained valuable hangar space on loan from the Australian Army stationed at the Oakey base. This provided the museum with valuable storage and restoration space for its growing collection of Australian Army aircraft.

The Museum Today

The Museum’s collection of memorabilia from 161 Recce Flt, isn’t just limited to aircraft. It also includes displays of uniforms, photographs and memoirs of Army Aviation servicemen. There’s also many items, some of which date back to 1912 when Australian Army Aviation was then known as the Australian Flying Corps (AFC). The museum also features a history of the base when it was 6 Aircraft Depot, a Royal Australian Air Force base during World War II – the place where this entire project began. It therefore it seems fitting that should we be successful in finding a Spitfire somewhere on the Darling Downs, that it be donated to the museum for future generations. As Brian Reardon has told us on numerous occassions, there would be nothing better than seeing one example of each of the aircraft that flew out of Oakey during World War II. The Museum is some of the way there with a fully airworthy Boomerang recently added to their collection. The museum plays an important role in preserving the history of Army Aviation. Importantly that includes the history of 161 Recce Flt, whose members of the 161 Recce Assoc have worked tirelessly behind the scenes at the museum.