News
All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), purchased with a grant of $30,000 from The John Villiers Trust, have provided much needed support to the Emu Park and Yeppoon Surf Life Saving Clubs.
Last season, volunteer members from the two clubs spent thousands of hours patrolling their respective beaches in Wide Bay Capricorn, performing a combined 646 preventative actions and, most importantly, saving nine lives in the process.
“There is no doubt the additional vehicles have, and will continue to provide a substantial boost to the patrol and lifesaving capabilities of each Club,” said Mr George Hill, Chief Operations Officer of Surf Life Saving Queensland.
“Even simple tasks such as relocating patrol equipment and transporting lifesavers have been made significantly easier thanks to the generosity of this grant.
“On behalf of Surf Life Saving Queensland and, more specifically, Emu Park and Yeppoon Surf Clubs, I would like to thank The John Villiers Trust for this show of support,” he said.
Mr Hill said the vehicles had also allowed the clubs to extend their patrols to neighbouring beaches, which had not previously been possible.
The John Villiers Trust approved an additional grant of $50,000 in November 2010 to Queensland Air Museum Inc for the purchase of a fully-operational Wirraway aircraft as a prized new exhibit in the Museum located at Caloundra airport on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The grant is additional to a grant of $200,000 awarded in March 2009 for this special exhibit.
VH-WIR near Watts Bridge photographed from Trevor Mills' RV-8 VH-YGY en route to Queenland Air Museum.
The aircraft was built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) in 1944. CAC built a total of 755 Wirraways from 1939 to 1946 at Fisherman’s Bend in Victoria. The museum’s first aircraft acquired in 1973 was a Canberra A84-225, the RAAF’s first jet bombers, built at the Government factory in Avalon, Victoria.
The Museum is dedicated to preserving Australia’s aviation heritage, and today has 42 complete aircraft and a vast collection of memorabilia.
The Wirraway, which bears the registration number VH-WIR, burst over the museum on 18 December 2010, having flown its last flight from Adelaide to Caloundra. The arrival was covered on television by ABC News and Nine News. The clips may be viewed on:–
ABC News
Nine News
Further details of the aircraft and the Museum click here or on the photo above.
Click here for a list of our latest grants
Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service recently purchased three "lipstick" cameras with the assistance of a grant from The John Villiers Trust.
"We are extremely grateful to The John Villiers Trust as the cameras are valuable for the on-going training of pilots and crew and training is a large part of what we do," said Executive Officer Kay Becker.
"Being lightweight and compact they can be worn on the helmets of crew or fixed internally or externally to the helicopter. Their versatility allows the crew to film unobstructed in all situations and gain an up-close record of rescues and training situations."
The crew including Matthew Cook (seen in the photo) recently trialled the cameras and they are looking forward to improving their performance by viewing footage during debriefing and evaluation sessions.
The helicopter service started in 1996 and operates free of charge to the community 24 hours per day 365 days per year, providing a high quality aero medical rescue helicopter service to the people of Central Queensland. For more information call 07 4922 9093 or visit www.chrs.org.au
Morning Bulletin 20.11.08