The Collection
The collection of recovered and restored items is privately owned by the TAA 25 Year Club, most of which was recovered from dumpster's, and public tips. Additionally, and with the help of members who were alerted to the 'clean out' activities, other items were retrieved before the clean out took place, and the collection grew rapidly.
A small group of members witnessing the discarding of this material sought the co-operation of Qantas, and the original small area allocated in 1988 in Franklin Street, TAA's Head Office (since 1965 and now transferred to QANTAS), was modified to house some articles that were considered of value. In 1992, approval was given for this to be expanded and approximately 150 sq metres was allocated on the 11th Floor. This area alleviated the overcrowding problem, but had severe limitations when public access was granted to promote and present the now growing collection, and was not considered suitable for public admittance.
In 2007, QANTAS, recognising the historic value and (now) volume of the collection, invited the TAA 25 Year Club inc. to relocate to a larger site with public and disabled access, at a site which was available at York Street, Airport West in Melbourne, opposite the original site of TAA's operations in 1947.
Today the Museum houses over 150,000 items, attracting donations of personal effects, memorabilia, and items recovered from Trash and Treasure Markets, Op shop sales, and city and country second hand dealer shops.
For small beginnings this is now the only dedicated museum portraying the commercial history of Australia's airline development and includes Butler, Holyman, Ansett, A.N.A., ANSETT-ANA, QANTAS, TAA and AUSTRALIAN plus many other smaller airlines that existed to serve the people of Australia.
Interesting Items
Contained within the collection are items that have significant historical value with stories befitting each identity, such as -
The first credit card issued by TAA in 1947 to a man who also served the people of Australia, but in a different way, his name was Harry Wren, who was well known on the East Cost of Australia for his troupe of traveling thespians, a theatre group that performed from Cairns in the North to Adelaide in the South, and all stations in between, including rural towns.
The original hand embroided pilots wings, which because of the advanced operational date (a new deadline imposed by Arthur Coles one month ahead of schedule) were passed from pilot to pilot as uniforms were not due to be issued until late September for an October commencement. The donor continually returned his uniform for 'alteration', until he was the last one to be issued and he had at that time retained these wings which he donated to the museum in 2006 during the 60th anniversary celebrations of the airline. His name - Captain Bill Waterton, who had also flown for ANA before joining TAA, and the pilot who delivered VH-AES to TAA in June 1946.
There are hundreds of items and hundreds of stories, and a guided tour is a must when visiting this museum.
The Museum has a major components display.
Many engineering components on display were originally used to train engineering staff. Of the many items on display there is an autopilot from a DC-3 /C-47, early radio equipment, the weather radar dome from a Viscount, and a working 'black box' from a Boeing 737 -200 aircraft. (it is actually fireglow orange for easy identification)
