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It's spawned conspiracy theories, court cases and allegations of a cover-up.īut after 20 years of research, ex-commercial pilot Martin Butler believes he has new evidence that proves there's more to the area than meets the eye. There were plenty of opportunities to do this, because there are numerous abandoned mines within minutes of the airfield.Ī tale of secret tunnels, buried aeroplanes and lost ammunition under North Head has remained an urban myth for almost a century. This version of the story appeared in the Royal Air Force News in the 1980s and British authorities thought it had sufficient substance to send an RAF group captain, wing commander and a technical NCO to Oakey to investigate.Ī more likely possibility is that the underground hanger theory developed in the telling and retelling of rumours that a few aircraft had been buried, hidden or dumped in a disused coalmine. The underground hangar story centres on reports of a squadron of 16 to 18 Spitfires, supposedly Mk XIVs in crates, hidden in underground storage, with spares and fuel, to be used in retaking Queensland in the event of a Japanese invasion forcing a retreat to the infamous Brisbane Line.īelievers of this theory say the Mk XIVs never saw service with the RAAF because they were specially imported to be hidden. "As soon as I arrived I realised that we were in the paddock adjacent to, not on, the correct site," said Mr Mulckey, who did not have council approval to investigate the adjoining property. Late access to the eyewitness and misreading of aerial surveys were blamed for the venture's failure. It included aerial photographic surveys retrieved from the archives for the years before and after the alleged burial, which indicated substantial digging. However, this was enough to prompt Bungunya farmer and pilot David Mulckey to launch an excavation in 2001. The contractors claimed a quarter of a century later to have buried the aircraft but could not be contacted for this story. He did not see aircraft going into the ground, but he saw contractors digging a trench, and a large crate in it.
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POMMIE GIT TRIAL
"I do not believe there are any hidden aircraft and various 'sightings' over the years were probably parts or partial aircraft pilfered or purchased as scrap," he said.īut a lifetime Oakey resident, who did not wish to be named, claims to be a reliable witness to the burial site of five aircraft in what may have been a trial disposal near the old Federal Mine. Toowoomba resident Laurie Wenham, who was employed in breaking down the aircraft prior to melting in 1948, is sceptical there are any planes. If hidden aircraft do exist, there are three main possibilities: they are buried stored in a hidden underground hangar or secreted in a coalmine. Opinions vary on the mystery and stories range from a high-level defence conspiracy among RAAF officers to a single leading aircraftman who hid or buried aircraft because he couldn't bear to see the magnificent machines destroyed. That should have been the ignominious end of arguably the greatest single-place fighter ever built, certainly the most legendary and romanticised. RAAF records show that 544 aircraft - 232 of them Spitfires - were flown to Oakey to be sold to a scrap metal dealer. They are the remnants of 656 Mark V and Mark VIII Spitfires that were delivered to the RAAF during the war. Many have searched for the legendary British fighters, reportedly still in their crates and hidden since the end of the World War II around the Queensland town of Oakey, but so far nobody has been able to lay claim to what would be a multi-million-dollar find. IT'S the Lasseter's Reef of warbirds - a rumoured stash of mint-condition Spitfires hidden underground in rural Queensland. Fact or fable: hunt is on for buried Spitfires