Restoration
of trucks, planes and other artifacts is not really practicable in PNG. Spare parts
are not available,except at great expense. The many skills needed are seldom to
be found, and even the reservoir of technical knowledge is very low. However many
would be restorers do come to PNG looking for wrecks,or parts thereof, especially
airplanes.
In PNG all "War Surplus Material"
belongs to the state and the purchase and export procedures are not for dreamers
or the fainthearted. All of the good, accessible wrecks were exported or recovered
years ago and what remains is scrap except in the more remote areas. Some of the
better known more or less complete wrecks,such as B-17E 41-2446 "Swamp
Ghost" are tremendous icons that add to the intrinsic appeal of PNG in Johns
mind and he believes that they should remain.
Tourist Attractions
Others,
such as the Ki-49 Helen at Alexishafen,
and the B-25D "Green Dragon" 41-30118 north of Madang add considerably to local tourism. That still leaves many many wrecks [mostly
scrap] which are of no or limited value to the nation or to the local tourism
industry.
Save the Wrecks
However
the authorities have never established any priority list of those that should
be saved. This is an urgent task. Once the Government has been placated [or even
before] the local landowners have also to be dealt with. They all believe that
,after 60 years, whatever is on their land belongs to them. Negotiations are often
very intense,and occasionally conflicting claims emerge. Skilled applicants only
need apply for this task PNG is a land with a cost plus economy. There is hardly
any competition; and so the costs of recovery can be very high. Nevertheless some
exports do occur.
WWII Aircraft Exports
John
helped in the export of the B-24 wing for the RAAF project in Australia, and the HARS recovery of a P-47D
from Popondetta. Other recent exports include a P-38 and some P-40 bits also
to Australia. In New Zealand, John restored military trucks and
vehicles as a hobby including a Chev model C8AX Canadian Military Pattern
[CMP], as used by New Zealand forces in WWII and Korea, including RNZAF in PNG
and Solomons. This one is painted in colours of 5th Arty 2nd New Zealand Division that his father was assigned during World War II.
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