Carol Berry (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to recognise the outstanding work carried out in my electorate by volunteers at the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, which is known by the acronym HARS. HARS is a not-for-profit organisation that operates an aviation museum as well as the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame at Shellharbour Airport. The society was established in 1979, and its mission is to recover and, where possible, restore to flying condition aircraft or types of aircraft that have played a significant part in Australian aviation history, in both civil and military arenas.

I visited the museum in May and found it enthralling. I discovered that over 50 aircraft are currently on display, with about 20 of them still airworthy. HARS' aviation museum has won a number of international awards, and its global reputation was epitomised when John Travolta, a pilot and aviation buff since he was a boy, donated his vintage Boeing 707 painted in Qantas livery to the museum. Remarkably, the museum is open every day of the year except Christmas Day, and I once again say this is done entirely by volunteers. I congratulate and applaud the hundreds of volunteer engineers, pilots and aviation enthusiasts at HARS' aviation museum, who conduct their work with great professionalism and pride. They do this not just to pursue their passion but to preserve and celebrate Australia's extraordinary aviation history for both current and future generations.