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Australian Road trip


Silver Fox

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We've managed to  do a deal with our school and get our son out for a few days  so with the Easter break we are going to Australia to see family in Adelaide then driving the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne.  I will be visiting the RAAF Museum at Point Cook. It is 15 years since  we were in Adelaide and longer since we were in Melbourne so things will have changed.

 

So as always the question are there any shops worth visiting, especially one that have Australian produced goodies s in stock and are there any aviation related sites on the way.

 

We are stopping over in Singapore  as really the same questions apply.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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I visit Adelaide fo the east coast a roughly yearly see my sone over there but a local may have some more insight to the local scene.

 

Adelaide has the South Australian Aviation Museum now located in Lipson St, Port Adelaide (which is located next to a railway museum if that floats your boat). The collection is growing rapidly with the F-111, Orion and Mirage now there. The museum also has a well-stocked gift shop with mainly Airfix and museum related kits on the shelves.

 

There is also the Classic Jets Fighter Museum at Parafield airport, BUT the last visit there a year ago found it a disappointment, they used to have a nice collection until most of it was sold off to fund their current F-4U Corsair restoration. The hangar used to be chock-a-block, now it just has the Corsair and a couple of others, a Sea Venom and Jindick and a few display cases around the walls. Not worth the $10 entry fee in my opinion.

 

As for shops with local content, not much around. Most of the 'local' stuff is usually available online, with the LHSs stocking your usual mainstream international kits, etc. There is a second-hand kit dealer in Richmond, Model World who also stocks newer releases as well and Aeroworks in Colonel Light Gardens (though they have very limited opening hours), both of these are in the southern suburbs.

 

On the north side, there is the Hobby Habit in Blair Athol (they also have a southside store in Melrose Park).

 

For Melbourne, if you are going to Point Cook then a visit to the Liberator restoration hangar in Werribee would be worth the effort which is about 20 minutes away. On the other side of the city there is also the Australian Aviation Museum at Moorabbin airport, it has a decent collection of locally operated Military and civil aircraft.

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Ray, so does that mean no more Mirage, Sabre or Airacobra at Parafield? If,so, that's a real shame.

 

Silver Fox, Ray has pretty much covered off the Australia side of things.  Whilst in Singapore the Air Force museum there is worth a visit and there are plenty of hobby shops as well.  Your best bet is to google them or look them up in the local phone directory.  I visited a couple whilst there last year, but could not tell you where they were, well one was near the Air Force museum and another couple were over the other side of town.  Everything over there is reachable by public transport

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1
15 hours ago, pacificmustang said:

Ray, so does that mean no more Mirage, Sabre or Airacobra at Parafield? If,so, that's a real shame.

.....

Yep, Mirage went to Caboolture in QLD, Airacobra went overseas and not sure where the Sabre went. They also had a P-38 which I think also went overseas.

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Hi Silver Fox,

 

Hope you enjoy your visit to Australia -

 

In Melbourne, as well as Point Cook, there are a couple of hobby stores in the city - Hearn's and Metro Hobbies however there's not a lot of extra Australian specific items in those stores than you would find in the UK. Hylands Bookshop is in the city too and would be worth a browse if you have the time. It specializes in Military books and is in Bourke Street in an arcade.

 

Not too far from Point Cook is the B24 Restoration Museum - It is run by volunteers and is only open part time -

https://www.b24australia.org.au/home

 

Ray has already mentioned this and the Moorabbin Museum.

 

In Singapore, you might want to visit High Planes Models

https://www.hpmhobbies.com/pages/Contact-Us.html

 

This was originally setup by 2 guys specialising in Australian subjects. It was bought by another Australian now living in Singapore - It still has a lot of Australian subjects.

 

Cheers

 

Michael

 

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