Readers of this blog know that we have a propensity to collect oddities , rarities , junk . Indeed , our runners scan the nation - the globe - looking for new items of interest . On a recent visit to Darwin we acquired the above highly desirable object made from angle iron , the propeller a piece of Reo reinforcing mesh .
The plane was spotted in a lush
tropical garden setting. It was offered to our junk collector by people
who had previously given him a rare
painting of nudist Darwin journalist
Dick Muddimer and his dog. That unusual painting was handed onto a woman who kindly looked after Muddimer late in his life .
A plan was made to sneak the plane out of the Territory , almost certainly on the NT Heritage List , to Queensland in personal luggage . However , as our scout looks sneaky and is often tested for explosives when he goes to the airport , as he was on his trip to Darwin, it was decided to leave the plane behind and have it smuggled out by courier at a later date.
This was a smart move as our man's wife was pulled up at the Darwin airport security check and her handbag scanned three times because of a suspicious key ring attachment in the shape of a large , silver , chewy dog bone .