Uiver Collection is a heritage-listed museum collection at 553 Kiewa Street, Albury, City of Albury, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1984 to 2016. It is also known as The Uiver Collection, Uiver DC-2 Collection and The Uiver Memorial Collection - Albury Library and Museum. The property is owned by Albury City Council. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 28 August 2017.
History A body known as the Centenary Council was formed in 1931 to arrange celebrations for the centenary of the settlement of Victoria (1834–1934), and of the founding of Melbourne (1835–1935). In 1933, the Centenary Council became incorporated in Victoria by statute and known as the Centenary Celebrations Council. The key event that it organised was the MacRobertson International Air Race from London to Melbourne. Although the Lord Mayor of Melbourne from October 1931 to December 1934, Sir Harold Gengoult-Smith, has been credited with the idea of holding the race, Eric V.E. Neill, the chairman of the council and Major Walter Conder (an organizer for the Council who in April 1933 left the council to become general manager of the Australian Broadcasting Commission) are also candidates for that honour. Melbourne-based chocolate manufacturer Sir Macpherson Robertson, known as "the chocolate king" sponsored the event to demonstrate the feasibility of a scheduled air service between Europe and Australia. Sir Macpherson Robertson offered fifteen thousand pounds prize money and a gold trophy, and the race attracted over 70 entries, of which 64 were allocated race numbers. A whittling down of entrants to the more serious competitors resulted in a final 20 aircraft from Australia, Australia-New Guinea, United States, Britain, Eire, Denmark, New Zealand and the Netherlands making the starting line. The racers took off from the Royal Air Force Mildenhall Aerodrome, 70 miles north of London.
The race started at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday 20 October 1934 with aeroplanes leaving at 45-second intervals. One of the most unusual entries was a Douglas DC-2 entered by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. It was registered PH-AJU, and following the convention of the period was called "Uiver" after the name of a bird starting with the last letter of the registration code. "Uiver" is a Dutch word for "stork". It was the biggest competitor and the only craft to carry several passengers in addition to its crew of four. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines wanted to prove that they could serve Australia with a twice-weekly air service and they were using their brand new comfortably equipped all metal semi-monocoque monoplane to make their point. One other aeroplane had a single passenger. On board the "Uiver" were four crew: chief pilot Captain Koene Dirk Parmentier, co-pilot First Officer Jan Johannes Moll, Wireless Operator and Navigator Cornelis van Brugge, Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Bouwe Prins and three passengers, Roelof Jan Domenie, Piet M.J. Gilissen and Thea Rasche. The pilots, Captain Parmentier and First Officer Moll, knew much of the journey well as they flew the airline's weekly service to the Dutch East Indies. Albert Plesman, the founding Director of KLM, selected Moll for the flight to Australia because he had already flown to Australia. In 1931, Moll flew the KNILM Fokker FVIIB PK-AFC Abel Tasman on a proving flight for a proposed airmail service from Batavia (Netherlands East Indies) to Sydney and thence to Melbourne.
de Havilland DH.88 Comet racing aircraft specially designed for the event were favourites to win the speed section. A married couple, popular aviators Jim and Amy Mollison, known in the press as the "flying sweethearts", flew one of the Comets, named "Black Magic". Jim Mollison was a pioneering Scottish pilot who had flown commercially for Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm's ill-fated Australian National Airways. His wife Amy was Amy Johnson, who in May 1930 had become the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, flying a de Havilland DH 60 Gipsy Moth "Jason". English aviators Flight Lieutenant Charles Scott and Kenyan coffee plantation manager Captain Tom Campbell Black flew another Comet, a red aircraft, dubbed "Grosvenor House" by the historic hotel's owner. A third de Havilland DH 88 Comet was flown by Cathcart Jones and K. F. Waller, and was the fourth aeroplane to arrive in Melbourne.
A day after the race began, an enthusiastic Sir Macpherson Robertson was in the Australian Broadcasting Commission Studios in Melbourne, and he said:
"Dear friends early yesterday morning before the sun had peaked over the horizon to disperse the mists enshrouding the Mildenhall Aerodrome in Suffolk, the competitors of the MacRobertson International Air Race were awaiting the signal to start on the epic flight of 11,323 miles. Never in the history of aviation has there been such a lineup of aviators and never in the history of the world has there been such an aerial contest. The Melbourne newspaper "The Argus" said in its editorial: "In an age of extraordinary mechanical progress one takes many things for granted; but flight halfway-across the world seems too remarkable for analysis. If the present conquest of speed be maintained at the present rate an air journey to England in these days will become commonplace. And Australia, that vast land over the edge of beyond will become part of a great world".
The KLM "Uiver" was only capable of flying 1,500-kilometre legs so had to refuel three times before the first official stop in Baghdad. The Dutch aeroplane landed only three hours behind the Mollison's de Havilland Comet, which was able to fly non-stop from England. It was apparent that the huge airliner was a formidable opponent. The Comets may have had speed but they were uncomfortable and extremely noisy. Jim and Amy Mollison arrived in Baghdad deaf, hungry and very tired. One eyewitness described the crew and passengers of the "Uiver" as being "as fresh as a daisy".
Excitement mounted worldwide as millions of people followed the race on their wireless sets. At Allahabad, India, the "flying sweethearts" had to withdraw their Comet from the race because of a broken oil line. The race to Victoria became a war of attrition. Dutch pilot Geysendorffer's Pander S4 was destroyed in a ground collision, also at Allahabad. Australian Jimmy Woods flipped his Lockheed Vega while landing at Aleppo in Northern Syria. A bumpy arrival in Bucharest, Hungary, caused damage to the flaps of American aviator Jacqueline Cochran's Granville R-6H. British entrants Gilman and Baines were both killed when their Fairey Fox I crashed near Palazzo San Gervasio in Italy. Tension mounted around the world as Charles Scott and Campbell Black in their Comet and Koene Parmentier and Jan Moll in the KLM DC-2 fought out the battle for first place.
A Time magazine article on 29 October 1934 described the course that covered 16 countries and three continents. It 'required night and day flying over country perilous with jagged mountains, snake infested jungles, deserts, hurricanes and typhoons. The toughest stretch may have been across the Syrian Desert where blinding sandstorms sometimes rise 20,000 feet and huge kite birds menace aerial navigation. Not much easier was the 2,210-mile jump from Allahabad to Singapore, with its Bay of Bengal water hop nearly as long as the North Atlantic. To the participants in the race, Lloyd's of London gave a 1-in-12 chance of being killed'. Between Singapore and Darwin, Scott and Black suffered a failure in one of the Comet's two engines. They just made it to Darwin. The "Uiver" was the second aircraft to arrive in Darwin and was well positioned to take out both the speed and the handicap sections of the race should the Comet be delayed for repairs or come to grief. Realistically, though, by the time the "Uiver" reached Darwin, the "Grosvenor House" Comet was well on the way to Melbourne and there was no chance of catching up in normal circumstances. Scott and Black knew of the increased risk occasioned by engine issues, but decided to take the risk and fly on. The "Uiver" had three passengers and taking a similar risk for them was never a possibility. In fact, the Douglas was so reliable that this kind of issue never arose. In the whole trip, only one part needed to be replaced, and this was done at Darwin. Parmentier learned at Charleville, southern Queensland, that Scott and Black had reached Melbourne. The bigger worry was that they would be passed by the Boeing 247D behind them, and this may well have been a factor in them deciding to press on, despite reports of adverse weather conditions ahead, which Moll was later to say should have caused them to pause in Charleville. The only reason why the Boeing 247D did not pass the "Uiver" while it was on the ground in Albury was because the Boeing struck engine trouble and had to land at Bourke for repairs.
The British Comet flew on, and seventy-one hours after take-off from London, Scott and Campbell Black crossed the finishing line at the Flemington Racecourse They took first honours in the speed section of the race along with the impressive MacRobertson Trophy and 10,000-pound prize money. The race rules stated each entrant could only win one section of the race, ruling them out of taking any prize in the handicap section despite coming first. Later in the year the English Royal Aero Club awarded the crew with "The Britannia Trophy" for their efforts. As the "Grosvenor House" touched down in Melbourne, the "Uiver" was at Charleville. The "Uiver" went via Batavia, because it was flying predominantly the standard route there. This added some distance to the total number of miles travelled.