There is a good reason that this place is called the Central Australian Aviation Museum, Alice Springs is pretty much the geographical centre of Australia. There is an awful lot of nothing in all directions. Believe me, I’ve been there!

It was in 1991, so I imagine the museum has changed a bit since, but it had an interesting display then. I recall a couple of Flying Doctor aircraft as well as a bunch of WWII artefacts.

One display I remember clearly was an articulated truck and trailer arrangement used to transport supplies up to Darwin during WWII. At that stage there weren’t any sealed roads and this vehicle would crawl up the dirt roads hauling its load. The top speed was around walking pace, so it would have taken weeks to get up there.

The museum itself is housed in the historic Connellan hangar. E J Connellan was an aviation pioneer in the NT and operated aircraft for the Flying Doctor Service. Display aircraft include a DH Dove, DH Drover, Douglas DC-3, Wacket trainer and Kookaburra glider. There is also a diorama with the remains of a Westland Widgeon, the Kookaburra, in which Hitchcock and Anderson died while looking for the stranded Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith.