{"id":907,"date":"2014-10-11T05:53:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T18:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/?p=907"},"modified":"2014-10-11T05:53:56","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T18:53:56","slug":"lake-boga-flying-boat-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/?p=907","title":{"rendered":"Lake Boga Flying Boat Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lake<\/a>During my visit to Swan Hill, for the AAAA Spring Fly-in and AGM, I took the opportunity to visit the nearby Flying Boat Museum at Lake Boga<\/a>, about 10 kilometres south of the town.<\/p>\n

During World War II, Lake Boga was a major centre for military flying boat maintenance – it was outside the range of enemy\u00a0aircraft and, long before the days of satellite surveillance, was well away from prying eyes. The facility serviced over 400 aircraft during its short 4-year life and about 1,000 RAAF and WAAF personnel\u00a0were based there.<\/p>\n

\"Catalina<\/a>Until recently, the main attraction – a complete but alas un-flyable Catalina flying boat – was parked outside, with other exhibits displayed in the underground communications bunker. However, in 2012, after many hours of work by the Lions Club of Swan Hill<\/a>, the Catalina was restored and moved into a newly constructed hangar, which now also hosts a large collection of memorabilia and photos.<\/p>\n

The communications bunker has also been restored to look as it did in the 40’s, using plans and photos from the time.<\/p>\n

All the service hangars and personnel quarters have now disappeared, although the three main slipways, where the aircraft were towed out of and into the water still remain. The 3 miles long by 2 miles wide lake is tranquil and, on the day we visited, sunny and warm with families picnicking on the grass banks.<\/p>\n

Well worth a visit if you’re in the area. The entry charge includes a 20-minute video about the base, from its origins in 1942 right up to the present day, as well as access to the communications bunker. At $10 a head or $20 for a family of 4 you can’t go wrong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During my visit to Swan Hill, for the AAAA Spring Fly-in and AGM, I took the opportunity to visit the nearby Flying Boat Museum at Lake Boga, about 10 kilometres south of the town. During World War II, Lake Boga … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,5],"tags":[265,573,604,953],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}