VH-AGX came to grief on Horn island soon after the photo was taken. It overran the runway after take-off was aborted. Now with the RAAF Museum at Point Cook.

A rare colour photograph of a Kingsford Smith KS-3 at work, supplied by Bill Boulden the chief pilot of Airwork. Only a handful of KS-3s were built using components from CAC Wackett trainers including the Warner Scarab engine. VH-FBD crashed on November 27, 1961 at Borden, Western Australia. Concerns over the Wackett's glued wooden wing resulted in the grounding of it, the remaining KS-3s and several other types including Avro Ansons. The continued development of the Wackett as a cropduster resulted in the Yeoman YA-1 Cropmaster with a metal wing.

VH-AAT photographed on a murky day over Port Phillip Bay.

Photo taken on a farm in the Frampton district near Cootamundra. In 1958 superphosphate came in individual sacks and agricultural pilots wore wartime leather helmets. Now it is bulk chemicals and kevlar helmets.

Ex RAAF A90-1. It was sold in New Zealand as ZK-BMQ in June 1959. John Daley photo

Flying boats first came to Karumba in 1938 when it was a refuelling stop for Qantas-Imperial Airways flights. The RAAF based flying boats there during World War II. After the war, the based was closed and the buildings sold. VH-FGC operated from the slipway next to the old Qantas lodge

ZK-REX came to Australia at the end of 1958 as a demonstrator. It was briefly registered VH-REX and named "Binatang". It returned to NZ registry but in 1960 was sold in Australia as VH-REI. Rex was Rex Aviation, a New Zealand company and Cessna agent. It would establish a base for Australian Cessna sales at Bankstown airport in Sydney.

VH-FBC returned to New Zealand in 1964 before coming back to Australia in 1969. On March 17, 1970 it crashed at Cassilis, NSW. The other Fletcher is VH-FBQ.

Designed by Luigi Pellarini, the Tanker was a predecessor of the Transavia Airtruk. The Tanker used an Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah engine and first flew in 1956 from Bankstown. It failed to win interest from cropdusting firms and the project was stopped. The PL7 was never certified or registered. It was damaged in a hangar fire and scrapped in 1962. Pellarini moved to New Zealand where he developed the Bennett Airtruck using T-6 parts before returning to Australia to design the Transavia Airtruk. Photo by Col Peck.

VH-AAH being loaded with superphosphate. Aircraft was fitted with a top-loading installation for agricultural cropdusting, but it proved too big for Australia and was soon returned to regular freighter configuration.

The tiny and remote Outback town of Birdsville is famous for its annual picnic horse races that attracts thousands of visitors and dozens of aircraft.

This was the first Cessna 180 to be registered VH-BQD and crashed at Beemery, NSW on August 7, 1956. It was replaced within the year by c/n 31128 imported from New Zealand. It too crashed, in 1959. The aircraft is seen here loading superphosphate on a farm probably in the Central West or South-West Slopes regions of NSW. The name of the photographer is not known.

Surfers Gardens aerodrome was part of the Surfers Paradise Speedway complex. Both have vanished under housing and an artificial lake. Sistership VH-WAP (c/n DHA826) is parked behind.

Looking majestic as it gets airborne on another survey mission.

Mornington Island is in the Gulf of Carpentaria and 700km north of Mt Isa, the regional base for the RFDS. VH-FDS is now on display at the Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach.

Aerial Tours was a Papua New Guinea operator and VH-TTM was on that country's register from 1976 to 1985 as P2-TTM.

Without a doctor and the nearest hospital hundreds of kilometres away, communities such as Bedourie in Queensland's Channel Country depend on the Royal Flying Doctor Service.