The photo on this page was taken on 17 March 1973 from the Ansett DC-3 VH-ABR which was taking a group to Ballarat for an airshow and departing off Runway 35 at Melbourne/Essendon. It shows the DCA apron and main hangar.

Roll your cursor over the images to identify particular buildings and their function.

The Departmental aircraft visible in the shot are, from left to right, an Aero Commander, Hawker Siddeley HS.125 VH-CAO, a Swearingen Merlin III and a Fokker F.27 Friendship.

The double green hangar in the centre of the image (and enlarged below) is Hangar 2. This was the original Flying Unit hangar when it was constituted as such post-war. One of the very early hangars on the airport, the internal structure is of wood. The left hand (southern) side was modified to provide clearance for the tail fin of an F.27. Former Flying Unit pilot Captain Brian Surtees recalls that "When I joined the F.U. in 1974 all the admin, ops, technical offices and workshops were located in the left hand side and in two storeys along the back of the hangar. On the right hand side was the flight survey lab and store. As the F.U. grew, the admin, ops, drawing office and management moved into the old white Ansett building attached to the south of the next hangar left (part of which you can see)." This was Hangar 4, formerly used by ANSETT-ANA.

To the extreme right of the image above, the hangar with the serrated roof, Hangar 3, was later taken over by DCA, primarily for the new Fokker F28s which were due for delivery from 1976.

In between Hangars 2 & 3 is a large square toilet block. Behind that the low fibro-cement building was the office of the Gliding Federation of Australia. In the 1990s the Flying Unit was moved out of the Ansett building and relocated in a temporary building located on the green grass area between Hangars 2 & 3. The Flight Surveyors were located in Building 45, across Wirraway Rd, from 1975 until the late 1980s.

Directly behinid the left hand (southern) part of Hangar 2 is Building 44, today home to the Airways Museum. In the distance behind that is the vast Regional Store warehouse.

(Photo: Gordon Reid)

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