The Friends of Rathmines
The Friends of Rathmines is a not-for-profit organisation based in Rathmines dedicated to recognising the historical importance of the former RAAF Flying Boat Base to the local community.
The President of the Friends of Rathmines, Alec Howard, handmade these objects as educational tools or as souvenirs for sale to support the organisation’s work. The Friends regularly held events to promote historic RAAF Rathmines and used these models to explain the former base’s significance.
- Educational model of A2-4 Supermarine Seagull V
- Educational model of HMAS Manoora
- Educational model of HMAS Sydney
- Souvenir model of A2-4 Supermarine Seagull V on a representation of Australia showing WWII RAAF bases
Alec wrote the local histories Rathmines… not forgotten and Rathmines… revisited to record the personal stories of RAAF Rathmines. Alec also was engaged to supervise small groups of people removing invasive species such as lantana from Rathmines Park.
The plane represented in Alec’s models is Supermarine Seagull V A2-4. This aircraft was mainly assigned to 9 Squadron from 1940 until 1943. It was often logged at Rathmines during this time. Flight Lieutenant Ekins flew A2-4 from Rathmines to the Squadron’s new base in Bowen, Queensland in February 1943. A2-4 survived the war and was restored in 1979. It is still exhibited in the RAF Museum, Hendon UK in Australian camouflage and markings, as it appears in Alec’s models.
This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License