A radio interview 50 years in the making and then preserved for three decades more reveals the kudos for saving the Uiver aeroplane is not confined to Albury citizens.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In fact, the last surviving Australian radio operator from 1934 told 3AW how he and his colleagues along eastern Australia were monitoring the Uiver's distress signal, directing it back over land and deciphering the Dutch wireless operator's Morse code suggestion about cars and headlights.
Such details link in with Albury residents then using their vehicles to light up the town's racecourse for the emergency landing.
"The way it's been written up, you'd think the flashing of the Albury lights had done everything, but that's not so," Tom Lang, then 76, said in 1984.
"What irked me about one of the publications I read was that there was no communication with the plane, that's quite a wrong statement."
RELATED:
- Footage from 1934 among new donations to Uiver collection
- Photos kept safe for decades show Uiver after Albury drama
- Dutch historian has given Albury a special gift for Uiver collection
- Uiver statuette thought lost turns up in Dutch museum
- Family Uiver memento illustrates father's story to son
- Decisions pending on permanent home for Uiver memorial
- WEEKENDER: Hunt for Uiver gifts hiding in plane sight
This interview was heard by Amsterdam-born Robert Kalkman, who later obtained a copy.
"My father worked for both Fokker and for KLM and had met (Uiver captain) Parmentier ... and I've always had an interest as a result," he said.
On Monday Mr Kalkman, of South Melbourne, visited the Border for his first extensive viewing of the Uiver collection in Albury Library Museum.
"It's still regarded internationally as a very significant aviation event," he said.
"You very rarely get a community play this sort of a role to save an aircraft and it's a credit to them then as it is now."
But, as Mr Lang pointed out, not only them, although the radio operators' contribution went unreported 84 years ago.
"That was part of the job, we were not allowed to divulge anything that we heard or read, you see," Mr Lang said.
"The passengers didn't know that there was any distress.
"The plane landed, so I found out later, with 20 minutes of petrol left in the tank, so he just put down in time."
Mr Kalkman has shared his recording with Uiver historian Noel Jackling, who had not previously heard the story of the radio operators.
"They did play a very crucial role in determining where the likely position of the Uiver was," Mr Kalkman said.
Receive our daily newsletter straight to your inbox each morning from The Border Mail. Sign up here
