VH-ARY   Lockheed 18-56  Lodestar                   (c/n   2104)

                           

                                  This image is courtesy of John Wilson and came from the State Library of Queensland in
                                  Brisbane.  It shows VH-ARY when in the service of Aircrafts Proprietary Limited  This
                                  concern had been an aviation name in Queensland for a long time.  It was originally formed
                                  in 1927 and flew its first passenger services in 1929.   Its main routes were from Brisbane to
                                  Rockhampton (via Maryboro' and Bundaberg) and south down the Queensland coast to
                                  Grafton.  It became Queensland Airlines in 1948.   After the war it acquired a number of
                                  Lockheed types, one of which was VH-ARY.   This was one of the ex-Dutch East Indies
                                  Air Force machines which had escaped to Australia in 1941.    It was sold in New Zealand
                                  in 1946 becoming ZK-ALZ, where the photograph below was taken before it was destined
                                  to go into service with New Zealand National Airways Corporation.  In the event, it never
                                  did, as evidenced by the complete history on Ron Cuskelly's Lockheed File website at:
                                                         :http://www.adastron.com/lockheed/lodestar/vh-ary.htm