The Port Lincoln, SA, airport passenger terminal was typical of many built by DCA at regional aerodromes during the 1960s. The photos here show it in the late 1960s. At the time Port Lincoln was a reasonably major regional port, being served by scheduled Airlines of South Australia Fokker F.27 Friendship services. As such, the terminal included airline offices and counter, toilets and a passenger lounge. Security screening had not yet been heard of!

The aircraft is Chartair's De Havilland DH104 Dove VH-MJD. This aircraft had an interesting life, having been delivered to the French Cie Nord Africaine de L'Hyperphosphate as F-BFVL in 1951. It was re-registered F-OABL when it went to Textile Cotoniere. Returning to mainland France in 1956, it went to SNCA de Sud Ouest as a company hack and reverted to F-BFVL.

In August 1957 it was sold in the U.K. to the brewery conglomerate Ind Coope and Allsopp becoming G-APCZ. After shuttling brewery management around for a decade it was sold in Australia to Chartwell Pty Ltd, operating as Chartair, in September 1967 as VH-MJD. Some time later it went to Air Oasis and in 1970 it was registered in Indonesia for Air Charter as PK-LEA and named Mother Goose. It was later acquired by S.A.A.T.A.S. East Indonesia, a charter outfit which operated in West Irian and East Timor. PK-LEA was among the many aircraft badly damaged at Darwin Airport by Cyclone Tracey on Christmas Day 1974. Later the Dove ended up at the Darwin Airport Fire Service practice area where it was ultimately burnt. However its undercarriage and other parts live on in the Darwin Aviation Museum's displayed Timorese Dove CR-TAG.

Click here to see the aerodrome layout

(Photo: CAHS collection)

Back to the main Airports & Aerodromes index

Back to the main Items of General Interest index