http://www.bordermail.com.au/news/local ... 48260.aspx
A $2.5 million price tag on displaying the Uiver replica within the Albury Airport terminal won’t be required to be found in the short term, Cr Neville Hull said.
The pro-Uiver councillor said the plane first had to be restored to display condition, a project which could take the Mol family and volunteers up to five years.
Cr Hull said the $2.5 million price tag was an estimate only and amounts of $500,000 could be set aside in the next five council budgets to fund the project if a survey of residents at present under way showed there was sufficient community interest to proceed.
“The $2.5 million is not today’s cost, but when we could be building it,” he said.
“The figure mentioned in the survey could be misleading to a lot of people.”
The plane to be restored is a replica of the one that was forced to make an emergency landing at the Albury racecourse during the 1934 London-to-Melbourne air race.
The DC-2 was given to the community by the Albury West Rotary Club.
Last year Smartair, operated by the Mol family, agreed to manage the replica’s restoration with assistance of volunteers at no cost to the council.
But a condition of the restoration was the council spend $250,000 on a hangar to house the plane during restoration and leased or sold once the restoration job was completed.
Also, once restored the plane would become a static display within the airport terminal.
“It will be set up like a museum,” Cr Hull said.
“There will be interactive displays and won’t just be a shed or hangar.
“The question that needs to be asked is does this town want a tourist icon?
“Is our next generation going to say ‘look at what these people did’?
“They had the oldest DC-2 in the world and let it go.”
Asked if tourists would be motivated to travel to the airport to see the Uiver, Cr Hull said: “If it was stand-alone I would say no.
“But it’s on the way to Lake Hume and tourists can pop in, have a look, have a coffee.
“Unlike the Cumberoona that has inconsistency, this is going to be there every day.”
An open day to view the Uiver replica will be held on January 29.