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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 7, 2021 20:05:51 GMT 12
A thought just occurred to me. Does anyone happen to know the actual addresses of, or the road/street at least, that the various postwar aircraft scrap yards were situated on - i.e. the Bexley scrap yard in Christchurch, the one in Onehunga where the Dauntlesses and at least one Corsair ended up, the one at Marton, the one in Blenheim and the one that Bennetts had at Te Kuiti?
I am wondering if any aerial photos show up on Retrolens. I have looked previously at Rukuhia but not thought to check out other places of interest. I do not know exactly where to look.
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Post by ZacYates on Mar 7, 2021 22:23:58 GMT 12
I can't help Dave but that's a fantastic idea. Hopefully some members will have addresses, leads or ideas.
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Post by Luis 'ᚭᛋᛒᛁᛅᚱᚾ' Rozas on Mar 8, 2021 11:55:10 GMT 12
A thought just occurred to me. Does anyone happen to know the actual addresses of, or the road/street at least, that the various postwar aircraft scrap yards were situated on - i.e. the one in Onehunga where the Dauntlesses and at least one Corsair ended up. I'd be really interested in the location of the Onehunga one. I doubt it is (assuming the yard hasn't been turned into housing or something) far away from my school, might make for a good mini-doco to practice for media studies. Hopefully someone here can answer your query.
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Post by aeromuzz on Mar 8, 2021 14:05:15 GMT 12
A thought just occurred to me. Does anyone happen to know the actual addresses of, or the road/street at least, that the various postwar aircraft scrap yards were situated on - i.e. the one in Onehunga where the Dauntlesses and at least one Corsair ended up. I'd be really interested in the location of the Onehunga one. I doubt it is (assuming the yard hasn't been turned into housing or something) far away from my school, might make for a good mini-doco to practice for media studies. Hopefully someone here can answer your query. There used to be a scrapyard more or less opposite Waikaraka Park at the opposite end to the Speedway. I haven't been through there is a while but I think it's long gone. For a few years it had one of the decomissioned frigate turrets at the front of it. And it's not far from where the aerodrome used to be as well.
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Post by denysjones on Mar 8, 2021 14:38:41 GMT 12
Dave, the Bexley yard of the Cunningham family traded as Metal Reclaim or Reclaimers (Dave Duxbury may correct that) and it was off Bexley Road via a dirt/mud track (depending on the time of year) which was titled either Anthony or Anthony's Road. I had a look here apps.canterburymaps.govt.nz/CanterburyHistoricAerialImagery/but didn't get anywhere with a search on that road name as the whole area was redeveloped as a subdivision which didn't hack it in the quakes and is now barren red land (still with streets etc in situ but all trace of the houses gone). In the site I give search for the corner of Wetlands Grove (one of the redevelopment street names) and Bexley Road, select the 1970 to 74 images and drag the view in the 11 o'clock direction until Kibblewhite St's name appears bottom right and then zoom in and you'll get to see the waterway hooks from bottom left to top and on the north side of the water is a large shed at the end of a road that runs off Bexley then does a 90degree to turn south and then fades out. That's the yard. Below (as seen on screen) the shed and slightly left you'll count 5 similar sized and shaped objects in a sort of L shape, those are Vampire fuselages..the cemmetary of the T55's hth
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Post by baronbeeza on Mar 8, 2021 15:41:16 GMT 12
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Post by johnnyfalcon on Mar 8, 2021 15:44:30 GMT 12
Wasn't the Marton one where the Squash Courts are/were by the railroad bridge over Wellington Rd? If so, it's ironic considering the proximity of Gallagher fuel systems building and the connection to a certain warbird owner
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Post by denysjones on Mar 8, 2021 16:01:15 GMT 12
Here's the image for 1970 to 74 the yard is in the centre with the big shed
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Post by shorty on Mar 8, 2021 19:54:36 GMT 12
Wasn't the Marton one where the Squash Courts are/were by the railroad bridge over Wellington Rd? If so, it's ironic considering the proximity of Gallagher fuel systems building and the connection to a certain warbird owner The Marton Aircraft were at Production Engineerings site on the corner of Wellington Street and Station Road. P.E. Ltd build petrol pumps for gas sations. The buildings were still there in the '60s when a group of us from Motat went there and excavated Vildebeeste frames from the river bank. I think there are photos of this in my "stash" thread. Later on P.E. moved and the old site was redeveloped as squash courts and car park. Gallaghers had a factory in Wellington Road and there was also quite a lot of stuff there, mainly under the loading bays. We also acquired some Vildie main spars that amateur radio hams had been using for aerial masts
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Post by bobajob on Mar 8, 2021 22:58:48 GMT 12
I remember as kid, vaguely seeing some WW2 aircraft fuselages stacked several high in a wrecking yard on the way back from a holiday in Auckland. We were traveling back in about 1960 or 1962. I think there were also Steam engines at the end of the electric railway line at about this time also. Would this have at Marton Site. Can anyone confirm this please.
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Post by shorty on Mar 9, 2021 3:17:24 GMT 12
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Post by denysjones on Mar 9, 2021 7:41:14 GMT 12
I forgot to mention in the photo of Bexley that where the "road" turns to head downwards to the shed you'll see some items on the right. As I recall they were sheepyards and a loading ramp but the fence along the roadside was made of a selection (6 to 8 I think now) of yellow and silver Harvard centre section panels.
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Post by denysjones on Mar 9, 2021 7:52:04 GMT 12
There was another yard in Bexley area on Maces Road, run by the Rollo family.
I never saw aircraft there per se but they had a lot of components, especially engine accessories etc.
Looking at images from the 1970's it would appear to be the yard at 149 Maces Road, not the car yard at 139.
We got, literally 44gallon drum loads of parts from there as that's what the materials were "stored" in. Rollos gave us the opportunity to go through the yard one Saturday and take as much as we wanted on the condition we never darkened their doors again. They however didn't imagine we'd turn up with a HIAB truck, and several cars and trailers, and proceed to hook out whole drumloads. Old man Rollo appeared, saw what we were up to, swore, and told us to "just ***** get on with it" and get of his life.
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Post by Luis 'ᚭᛋᛒᛁᛅᚱᚾ' Rozas on Mar 9, 2021 9:28:42 GMT 12
I'd be really interested in the location of the Onehunga one. I doubt it is (assuming the yard hasn't been turned into housing or something) far away from my school, might make for a good mini-doco to practice for media studies. Hopefully someone here can answer your query. There used to be a scrapyard more or less opposite Waikaraka Park at the opposite end to the Speedway. I haven't been through there is a while but I think it's long gone. For a few years it had one of the decomissioned frigate turrets at the front of it. And it's not far from where the aerodrome used to be as well. I'll give it a looksie after school today. As you said it's probably long gone but I am not opposed to filming whatever's there now. ~30mins walking so should be good.
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Post by AussieBob on Mar 9, 2021 11:20:14 GMT 12
There is mention of the turret outside the Onehunga scrap yard back in a 2009 post on the Battle of the River Plate and turrets.. 298 Neilson St, Onehunga, Auckland Errol mentioned it was down the road from where he works. rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/9074/battle-river-plate
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Post by aeromuzz on Mar 9, 2021 11:40:19 GMT 12
There is mention of the turret outside the Onehunga scrap yard back in a 2009 post on the Battle of the River Plate and turrets.. 298 Neilson St, Onehunga, Auckland Errol mentioned it was down the road from where he works. rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/9074/battle-river-plateSince my post earlier in the thread, I've checked a website with historic aerial photos and found that the scrapyard was a little further down Neilson Street than I remembered. It was directly opposite Edinburgh Street and is definitely now long gone. I could see the turret in some of the photos which confirmed the site. Unfortunately, there is a big gap in dates (from 1940 to 1959) so there is no photo that could likely confirm aircraft parts. If anyone is interested, the turret in now outside a scrap metal yard on Harris Road In East Tamaki.
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Post by ErrolC on Mar 9, 2021 12:20:27 GMT 12
There is mention of the turret outside the Onehunga scrap yard back in a 2009 post on the Battle of the River Plate and turrets.. 298 Neilson St, Onehunga, Auckland Errol mentioned it was down the road from where he works. rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/9074/battle-river-plateSince my post earlier in the thread, I've checked a website with historic aerial photos and found that the scrapyard was a little further down Neilson Street than I remembered. It was directly opposite Edinburgh Street and is definitely now long gone. I could see the turret in some of the photos which confirmed the site. Unfortunately, there is a big gap in dates (from 1940 to 1959) so there is no photo that could likely confirm aircraft parts. If anyone is interested, the turret in now outside a scrap metal yard on Harris Road In East Tamaki. That's where it went! There are still various smaller-scale smelters etc along there. I no longer work on Neilson St (just over the water in Favona). BTW, the Mig-21 on Church St is looking rather sad and unmaintained on the roof near there.
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Post by Bruce on Mar 9, 2021 13:56:57 GMT 12
Te Kuiti in 1963 appears here: (from Retrolens) The two avengers and many harvard fuselages are visible between the hangars and the bend in the stream to the right of the picture.
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Post by Luis 'ᚭᛋᛒᛁᛅᚱᚾ' Rozas on Mar 9, 2021 14:08:03 GMT 12
Since my post earlier in the thread, I've checked a website with historic aerial photos and found that the scrapyard was a little further down Neilson Street than I remembered. It was directly opposite Edinburgh Street and is definitely now long gone. I could see the turret in some of the photos which confirmed the site. Unfortunately, there is a big gap in dates (from 1940 to 1959) so there is no photo that could likely confirm aircraft parts. If anyone is interested, the turret in now outside a scrap metal yard on Harris Road In East Tamaki. That's where it went! There are still various smaller-scale smelters etc along there. I no longer work on Neilson St (just over the water in Favona). BTW, the Mig-21 on Church St is looking rather sad and unmaintained on the roof near there. As is the PZL Iskra inside.
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Post by curtiss on Mar 9, 2021 16:44:57 GMT 12
There was a scrap yard in Gracefield (Hutt Valley) that had Hastings parts in the early/mid seventies.
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