VH-BQR  Percival P.34A Proctor III                        (c/n  K.392)

                                      

                                         The above shot by Macarthur Job illustrates the combined fleet of the Bush Church Aid Society
                                         based at Ceduna in the far west of SA, circa 1956.   The BCAS was a Church of England organ-
                                         ization which provided medical support to people in the Australian outback, carrying a doctor and
                                         nurse on regular clinic runs to remote settlements as well as emergency evacuations.  Macarthur
                                         was a pilot for the concern in those days.   VH-BQR had been built during WW2 for the RAF as
                                         a Mk.II serialed Z7203, and was modified in military service to a Mk.III.  It was civilianized in the
                                         UK as G-ALIS and imported into Australia early in 1952.  The Dragon VH-AGI was replaced by
                                         Lockheed 12A VH-FMS and the Proctor replaced by a Cessna 210.    The BCAS Ceduna oper-
                                         ation was later taken over by the RFDS    
                                         In the photo below, by Geoff Goodall, the Proctor is seen at Bunbury, WA technical in April 1969.
                                         It had been sold by BCAS in January 1960 to WA farmer Frank Lawrence of Benjaberring, just
                                         prior to DCA announcing a range of severe airworthiness inspections for British aircraft of wooden
                                         construction.  VH-BQR was flown by Lawrence from his farm strip to Maylands aerodrome, Perth
                                         for its annual CofA renewal on 31 March 1962, when the new DCA wood joint tests revealed glue
                                         adhesion breakdown which proved uneconomical to repair. He donated the aircraft to the Bunbury
                                         school as an instructional airframe, where it was moved by road.
                                         After years in the open, the Proctor fell into poor condition and was saved by the Airforce Assoc-
                                         iation Aviation Museum group in Perth.   It is seen in the shot at the foot of the page at the AFA
                                         Bateman Estate in December 1972 being loaded on a truck to be moved to a member's home in
                                         the Perth suburb of Riverton where it commenced a 30 year restoration for display at the museum,
                                         where it resides today in RAF markings