page_title: Queensland Air Museum
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Queensland Air Museum / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Hangar 2 display at the Queensland Air Museum.
context_page_description: The Queensland Air Museum is a not-for-profit community owned aviation museum located at Caloundra Airport in Queensland, Australia. Its mission is to collect and preserve all aspects of aviation heritage with an emphasis on Australia and Queensland. The museum has the largest collection of historical aircraft in Queensland and it also has a large collection of aircraft engines, equipment, artefacts, photographs and books.
context_section_description: On 2 June 1974 the Queensland Air Museum was inaugurated with the official unveiling of a Canberra bomber that had been purchased from a Government disposal. The aircraft was displayed at the Pioneer Valley Park, which was a museum at Kuraby in Brisbane's southern suburbs. The park was eventually closed and the aircraft was moved to a leased site at Nudgee on the north side of Brisbane. The collection began to grow when a Meteor TT20 was donated to the museum by the British Government and a Vampire and two Sea Venoms were acquired.
  Due to the construction of the new Brisbane Airport nearby, the collection was forced to move to a temporary holding area on the airport site. Exorbitant rental costs at this location eventually lead to the museum being evicted and the resultant publicity resulted in an offer of a permanent home on the Sunshine Coast by the Landsborough Shire Council. On 14 June 1986 the collection was relocated to a site at Caloundra Airport which had a newly built hangar. The official opening of the museum took place on 4 April 1987 by Mrs Ly Bennett, wife of the museum's first patron, the late Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett. Don Bennett was the Queensland born founder of the World War II Bomber Command Pathfinder Force and to honour this the road in front of the museum was named Pathfinder Drive.
  Now with a permanent home the collection continued to grow and in 1989 it was bolstered by an ambitious recovery expedition to Singapore where a Sea Vixen, Meteor and Hunter were purchased from a scrap metal dealer just days before their destruction. The aircraft were disassembled and successfully shipped to Australia where they were restored and placed on display.
  The two hectare museum site has been steadily developed with the construction of a second hangar being completed in July 2004 which was later extended in 2006. A library, restoration and storage facilities have also been constructed.
  In September 2006, Mr Allan Vial, DFC OAM OPR (Pol), become the Patron of the Queensland Air Museum, he is also Life President of the Pathfinder Force Association in Australia.
  A plan to relocate Caloundra Airport placed an uncertain future on the museum for many years. But on 2 September 2010 the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced in Parliament that the airport would continue to operate on its present site and she said this would provide "certainty for the iconic air museum". The museum's situation further improved when the Sunshine Coast Regional Council granted the museum a 30-year lease extension and on 28 March 2013 a Caloundra Aerodrome Master Plan was adopted. The Plan recognised the museum's tourism potential and provided for a substantial increase in the size of the museum's site to allow for expansion.
  In August 2013, former Australian Defence Force Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Geoff Shepard AO (ret) became the patron of the museum.
caption: Queensland Air Museum Hangar 2 display
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