The sky is the limit for the Mount Gambier Aviation Museum which is preparing for take off by the end of the year.


The idea for the museum was first propelled by Mount Gambier Aviation Museum Incorporated head of collections Ian Fritsch who was the Mount Gambier Regional Airport manager for 16 years up until his retirement in 2023.


The museum will set its sights on aviation history in Mount Gambier with a particular focus on the local World War ll era.


The current Mount Gambier Regional Airport served as No 2 Air Observers School RAAF Mount Gambier from 1941-45 during World War II as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) and saw more than 4000 air observers, navigators and wireless operators pass through.


A public meeting for the project held in June 2022 at the Mount Gambier Regional Airport was attended by around 20 community members including Federal Member for Barker Tony Pasin and Independent Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell.


Mount Gambier Aviation Museum Incorporated chairperson Chris Holden was a PhD student and teacher at the University of Canberra researching aviation museums around Australia for his thesis when he became aware of the project through the meeting.


“I feel like it is not recognised locally how significant it was and I think that is something for me personally that is a key driver and a key catalyst in being involved is to share that history and that heritage and for the broader community to be proud of it,” he said.


“Over the last 10 months or so we have slowly been building a capacity to show the history of this base and other histories as well as they come to light.


“From a collection’s perspective we have had stuff donated from across the country so their grandfather flew here during the war or trained here during the war so they have sent the uniform and corresponding paraphernalia.


“Museums can become very cluttered if they do not have a clear rationale for why they accept items, so everything that has been donated so far is because it is connected to this base and it feeds into that wider narrative.


“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle and you do not know how many pieces you are playing with. I have researched museums who have been doing this for 40 years and they have said they do not know where it will end.”


Following the public meeting, the Mount Gambier Aviation Museum Incorporated was formed in October 2023 and developed a Mount Gambier Airport History and Heritage Masterplan highlighting the strategic vision, heritage value and proposed projects of the museum.


In April 2024, the organisation received $5000 seed funding from the Grant District Council and launched its website.


Council released its Mount Gambier Airport Master Plan 2025-2035 in December 2024 which includes the advocacy project of the ‘Airport History and Display Trail’.


The council said it “will continue to partner with the Mount Gambier Aviation Museum Incorporated to identify suitable grant funding opportunities and will provide project management expertise to complete this work”.


The Mount Gambier Aviation Museum Incorporated filmed its first video interview in July 2024 with former pilot Ian McRae, now 102, who served at the site during World War II returning to Mount Gambier for the first time since he was discharged from service at the end of the war in 1945.


“We have got that story so now it’s just a case of editing and connecting that to collection items,” Dr Holden said.


In August 2024, the Mount Gambier Aviation Museum was formally accepted into the Aviation Museums National Network and later that year the committee officially signed a license agreement with the council to gain access to 20% of the Bellman Hanger for the museum.


Mr Fritsch said the current site of the Mount Gambier Regional Airport is the third airport in resurrected in the Blue Lake city.


“The first airlines flew into here in April 1928 as a regular public transport and we always thought this was the second airport, but this is the third one,” he said.


“The first one was across the road, we thought but that was actually the second one, the first one is about three miles on Penola Road.


“I personally think that this last period of time will be the last chance you’ll get to collect this stuff because grandpa will die and people will … throw it in the bin. We have some really interesting stuff.


“We have a memorandum of understanding with the RSL, they are on board with us. They will give us items on loan they cannot display.”