Community & Business
4 June, 2024
Pulling apart Spitfires 75 years on
Noel and Noela Luck had a special story to share at the recent Vintage Machinery Display event at Lilyvale.
It’s something which happened a lifetime ago, and feels like a different age whe thinking about it these days.
Yet for three years at the turn of the decade, Noel picked up work to melt down planes that had seen action in World War II.
Together with around 10 other workers, Noel pulled apart over 1000 planes at what was then known as RAAF Base Oakey (now Swartz Barracks Oakey Army Aviation Centre).
He said at the time it felt like just another job.
“All the guns and instruments were taken out beforehand,” he said.
“There was not much work around in those days.
“Herb Boyle from Sydney was our boss, and he came up a few times, but we had more to do with the foreman Tom Dobson.”
Slowly, all the planes were melted down into aluminium ingots.
There were two furnaces on the base, which looked like a large scale version of what you might find at a bakery.
“You had a crane and took the wing,” Noel said.
“The furnace was large enough to put the wing in.
A Champion article provides further background from Noel, and brother Ron, now sadly deceased:
“There must have been about 1200 Kittyhawk and Spitfire engines, as well as 23 Mustangs and a heap of Boomerangs and Bombers,” Noel said to our reporter at the time (probably in the late 1980s or early 1990s).
“We had to pull the engines apart and sort the components into various sections.
“We used to get through about five or six engines a day.”
Along with the names listed in the photos here, 2024 Noel remembers other names of fellow workers like Bill Reid and Ken Boch.
He and wife Noela have gone on to live fairly standard lives for people of their age, time and background.
They met at a dance at Boodua Hall, and, all going well, are set to celebrate their 75th anniversary in January.
But at Lilyvale two weekends ago, they shared their unusual story with amazed passers-by.
