Community spirit and a can-do attitude will be celebrated when Albury this month marks 85 years since its most famous aviation incident.
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A fundraising dinner on October 19 will honour the 85th anniversary of the Uiver rescue, where residents banded together to help the Dutch airliner lost during the London to Melbourne Air Race.
Uiver Memorial Community Trust chairman Pieter Mol said the experiences of October 1934 brought the Border town worldwide recognition.
"It's not just an old aeroplane that landed on the racecourse in Albury, the whole air race was a very big event in its day," he said.
"The whole race would have had a completely different feel and outcome to it if that aeroplane had crashed and killed everyone on board.
"It's a fabulous story, it shows the huge initiative on the part of the citizens and I think it's something that we should be proud of."
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The dinner at Commercial Club Albury will also highlight this month's centenary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which owned the Uiver.
A KLM representative has been invited to the function while other guests include Dutch ambassador to Australia, Marion Derckx and Qantas captain Richard de Crespigny.
John Walker will compere the evening, which also features live music from jazz band Snoopy and the Taildraggers and a charity auction to support the trust.
Mr Mol said on October 18 nearly 250 school children would tour the DC-2 aircraft being restored by the trust and learn more about the Uiver history.
"The future of the whole project ultimately will depend on people knowing about the story," he said.
"Taking some pride and taking ownership of the aircraft and the work that was done by the citizens of Albury in 1934 when they were successful in saving the aircraft that was in trouble."
The chairman said links established between the Netherlands and Albury by the 1934 incident still remained today.
"It has a real connection with people in another country, which I think is important to keep alive and pass on to the next generation," he said.
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The trust is presently negotiating to move into a bigger hangar to assist the restoration, as the present site remains "space-critical".
"It doesn't allow us to bring in as many volunteers as we would like to have on the project because we're basically tripping over one another," Mr Mol said.
Bookings for the fundraising dinner on October 19, which starts at 7pm, can be made through the trybooking website or call (02) 6021 2929.
