Who We Are

HARS Aviation Museum

The HARS Aviation Museum is an all volunteer group of Aviation Professionals and Enthusiasts who have premises at Shellharbour Airport (YSHL), Albion Park Rail just over an hour by road South of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.  Of increasing importance is a satellite museum and storage at the airport of the NSW Central West town of Parkes.  Whilst many here are active and retired aviation personnel, recent years have seen more and more people contributing their diverse skills.  All someone needs is dedication and a love of aircraft and history.

The aircraft engineering capability of our members can be demonstrated by remembering that during the 1990s, they took a derelict Lockheed Super Constellation (Connie) from the Davis Montham aircraft graveyard and restored it from almost nothing to beautiful flying condition and flew it across the Pacific to its home here.

Defining Event

If there has been one defining event in the recent history of HARS, it has been the arrival of our Boeing 747-438 aircraft, VH-OJA, “The City of Canberra”.  This aircraft means so much to many of our members who maintained and operated it during its life in Qantas.  We have also seen our collection of both airworthy and static aircraft increase at a seemingly amazing pace.  Every year there is something new to see, and HARS is truly a solid destination on the World map of aviation “places to see”.

Whilst our collection centres around a parade of airliners from the “Southern Cross Replica” (a faithful replica Fokker F.VIIb/3m trimotor) through our three flying C-47 / DC-3 aircraft (one of which is the “Hawdon”, TAA’s first passenger aircraft), Convair 440, DC-4, Fokker F27 Friendship, Super Constellation and Boeing 747-438, we also have a number of other historic aircraft types.  There is the Catalina, our two Caribou, three P-2 Neptunes (two flyable), AP-3C Orion, CA-27 Avon Sabre, Canberra, two Vampires, Mirage IIIO, Winjeel, Auster J5G Autocar, Tiger Moth, Victa Airtourer and an F-111C, among others.  We have many examples of people who have “popped in for a look” and have spent far longer in absorbed fascination than they had anticipated.

In addition to our pride in maintaining our aeroplanes, HARS has a valuable social function for members and their spouses, allowing pilots and engineers to continue their love affair with aeroplanes and to interact with their compatriots long after they have moved on from active involvement with heavy aircraft.