VH-PCR
Auster
III
(c/n 654)

This Auster was originally the RAF's NJ834 which was later
shipped to the RAAF in 1945, just
before the end of the
war in the Pacific. It was given the serial number A11-37. It was
civilianized
in 1947 as VH-BHA for
the Zinc Corporation who paid $1000 for it. Air Agriculture Control Ltd
purchased it in 1951
and re-registered it in their series. Like VH-PCM it is doubtful
that they
intended to relegate
it to crop dusting duties. After a series of owners in the early
1960s it was
destroyed in a crash
when it stalled on short finals at a strip at Harden, NSW on 8 May
1966. The
owner, B.M. Osborne was
with a would-be purchaser of the craft at the time. Unfortunately both
were killed.