By Alistair Gray
Nelson Heatherington and Dave Walsh are two innovative entrepreneurs with the vision to construct the Beaufort Hangar at the Caboolture Airfield.
I love stories of entrepreneurship, innovation and tenacity. Little did I think I would be writing about the aircraft hangar in Caboolture. Yet this, the largest hangar at the airfield, some 100 feet across (30.48 metres) and big enough to house a DC2, has a story behind it and how it got to Caboolture.
The hangar was originally constructed at the Canberra Airport in 1936 to meet the increased demand for air travel and was used during World War II by the RAAF training with service personnel camped alongside. It was used to house one of the first long-distance aviation radio communication transceivers and is reported to have housed the Southern Cross. Later, a passenger terminal was constructed alongside the hangar with an annex to accommodate services like runway lighting control, civil aviation pilot briefing, federal police and refuelling systems power. This was used till 1988, when a new terminal was constructed and the land was required for parking. This meant the building we now know as the Beaufort hangar, had to be removed.
Two local engineers, Dave Walsh and Nelson Heatherington, through their newly formed company Davnel, purchased the hangar for $5000, provided they could dismantle the giant structure in just four weeks. The building was carefully marked and photographed before being carefully dismantled. This was not without its issues, as the power and communications for the whole airport had been running through the hangar, including the telephone lines for federal police operations. There were multitudes of wires, many no longer in use and the decision was made to cut all the cables to enable the dismantling work to be done. Immediately the Feds came running as their telephone lines had been cut to all their critical operations and a workaround was arranged.
Another challenge was getting the dismantled girders and parts of the hangar from Canberra to Caboolture. A deal was done with a truckie who was carting to Canberra and returning empty, who transported all the parts to Caboolture in only five loads. However, there was another challenge. The girders hung outside the width of the truck. The truckie said he knew all the back ways to miss the cops, so the girders and parts arrived at their new home undetected.
The Caboolture Airfield at the time was very new, with only one other hangar constructed before it. The land to be the airfield was once a swamp. Graders and bulldozers were used to fill it in and flatten it to form the airfield. Adding to the challenges, the new airfield’s perimeter access road was gravel, meaning initial transport deliveries could not reach the site and were unloaded wherever possible. Sub-contractors, with the assistance of the new owners and helpers rebuilt the hangar.
The main structure is original, with side annexes added. The reconstructed hangar was completed in 1995 and originally opened as the Warplane Museum by the regional council mayor John White. In 2015, the Warplane Museum was relocated to Hanger 101 and the hangar was sold to the current owner to house the Beaufort Bomber reconstruction. Today, the hangar is home to the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre, the Beaufort and other planes that are being restored.