The Australia War Memorial's Big Things in Store open day gave the public a rare chance to get close to tanks, trucks and aircraft used across our nation's military history.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The cold hangar in Mitchell is a storage hub and conservation facility and contains artillery pieces dating back to the mid 1870s, as well as a raft of 20th and 21st century war machines.
One of the memorial's conservation team, Reverend Woody, stood in the workshop explaining how every rivet and panel on the Lockheed Hudson was restored using 1940s technique.
But the star attraction this year was the Boeing CH-47D Chinook A15-202 "Centaur", an aircraft that served with the Australian Army's 5th Aviation regiment in Afghanistan from 2000 until it was retired on April 19.
The twin-rotor helicopter did extensive service as part of Operation Slipper and, according to the memorial's Military Heraldry and Technology curator Garth O'Connell, bears evidence of battle damage.
"The kangaroo on the side of the aircraft has got a bullet hole in it," he said. "The tail has a patch that shows where it was fixed in Afghanistan."
He said veterans with recent conflict experience were familiar with the Chinook but, for others, seeing it created a tangible connection to the service of their colleagues, friends or loved ones.
Visitors could step back in time and notice the evolution of engineering and military technology.
There was the Changi camp concert piano, a German V2 rocket and an unmanned guided ballistic missile used in World War II and said to be built by war prisoners.
But it was the stories behind the objects that fascinated people, senior curator Shane Casey said.
"People like seeing something that is real," he said. "You can see the dirt on the trucks, where people sat, stepped up into and operated things.
"I met a number of recent Afghanistan veterans here today, including a pilot of our Chinook helicopter. He'd flown 1000 hours in it and said, while it seemed strange seeing it with the rotors off, he was glad it was being preserved and his kids, who were with him, could look back in years to come and remember that was the one their dad flew."
