THE EMU ATOMIC MUSTANGS
Photographs by Geoff Goodall unless stated otherwiseBritish atomic bomb tests in Australia commenced in 1952 in the Monte Bello Islands on the West Australian coast near Onslow, then moved to a remote location in the South Australian desert near a large claypan given the name Emu. Among military equipment used at Emu to test the effects of blast and radiation were six RAAF CAC Mustangs flown in from storage at RAAF Tocumwal NSW.
After two atomic explosions, further tests moved to a new site named Maralinga SA, abandoning the Emu site whch was within an air and ground Prohibited Area. In 1967 a British Army clearing operation was removing and burying all remaining equipment and buildings. Because the Mustangs were owned by the Australian Government, officialdom required their disposal to follow the normal tender process.
By submitting a token bid, our group of enthusiasts was granted access to Emu to inspect these Mustangs as prospective purchasers.
of the Emu and Maralinga test sites. This official photograph shows the Totem 1 atomic explosion at Emu on 15 October 1953.
L-R: David Prossor, Geoff Goodall, Melvyn Davis, Peter Limon (pilot in command) and Neil Follett. This picture was taken during a
refuelling stop at the Coober Pedy opal mining fields, where residents live underground due to the high temperatures.
a glint from the ground brought us over the blast site and five of the six Mustangs, still parked at different angles to the blast site.
Military Police security escorts are parked outside. Their geiger-counters reassured us that radiation levels were low.
could not be seen in the background. Of the six aircraft, this was the prize: A68-1, the first Australian assembled Mustang by CAC at
Fishermans Bend, Melbourne in 1945. The desert sun had faded the serial and roundel but the serial could be clearly read etched in the
metal. Unfortunately, each of the aircraft had suffered damage inflicted by oil and mineral survey road teams permitted to enter the Emu
Prohibited Area over the years. A68-1's canopy had been smashed, torn off its rails and the cockpit vandalised by bored survey workers.
over past years and taxied along the track. When a main wheel dug into the dirt it was left with its tail protruding on the track, to be struck
by passing vehicles. Note the PR camera port behind the roundel.
The aftermath
The successful bid for the Department of Supply tender for the six
Mustangs was by American dealer Stanley Booker of Stan's Airplane
Sales, Fresno, California, who was in Adelaide at the time purchasing
RAAF disposals Dakotas at Parafield. He struck a deal with an Adelaide group of
pilots and engineers headed by charter pilot Tony
Schwerdt - in return for them carrying out the dismantling and removal of the Mustangs overland to
Adelaide, they could choose the best aircraft for themselves.
In a mammoth effort, the Schwerdt team worked in sweltering heat to dismantle five aircraft which were removed by truck along a rough track to the Transcontinental Railway line at Watson siding, where they were sent by rail to Adelaide. They selected A68-1 as their own, and with the looming military deadline to vacate Emu by the end of October 1967, made it fit for a ferry flight. Tony Schwerdt flew it out on 31 October 1967 to Coober Pedy, with gear fixed down. Once clear of the Maralinga restricted area there was time for talks with DCA, which granted a ferry permit for Tony to continue his flight Coober Pedy-Adelaide.
In a mammoth effort, the Schwerdt team worked in sweltering heat to dismantle five aircraft which were removed by truck along a rough track to the Transcontinental Railway line at Watson siding, where they were sent by rail to Adelaide. They selected A68-1 as their own, and with the looming military deadline to vacate Emu by the end of October 1967, made it fit for a ferry flight. Tony Schwerdt flew it out on 31 October 1967 to Coober Pedy, with gear fixed down. Once clear of the Maralinga restricted area there was time for talks with DCA, which granted a ferry permit for Tony to continue his flight Coober Pedy-Adelaide.
with gear locked down. He was escorted by a DCA Aero Commander, flown by senior DCA official Jim Schofield, who had been the
CAC test pilot for A68-1's first flight at Fishermans Bend on 29 April 1945.
would stay at Parafield as a privately owned civil aircraft. But DCA enforced their policy restricting civil operation of former military combat
aircraft, on the basis that during their service lives they could have be been subjected to unreported manoeuvres beyond their design limits.
Tony Schwerdt for his unauthorised flight from Emu to Coober Pedy. This colour shot at Parafield mid year was taken by Barry Tait,
following a Merlin ground run. It shows fresh paintwork and a decal for sponsor BP worn off by engine runs.
Late that year the disheartened Adelaide group accepted an offer from Stan Booker to sell him A68-1. The irony was that within
weeks they learnt that their submissions and those of fellow Adelaide pilot Langdon Badger for his CAC Mustang (VH-IVI) had resulted
in DCA reviewing their policy: a Certificate of Registration for A68-1 as VH-EMS arrived in the post. But it was too late.
owned by American warbird enthusiast Wiley Sanders in Alabama, painted in spurious camoufalage as RAAF "A68-1001 Jeanie Too".
And the other five ?
Cavalier Aircraft dismantled the five to airframe sections to be reconditioned for Cavalier's rebuilding program. Whether parts of the Emu atomic Mustangs were actually used will never be known, but left-over Cavalier parts were later sold on the booming US warbird scene. Certainly CAC panels have been seen on flying North American P-51D warbirds, and there is an ongoing joke that certain parts of certain P-51Ds glow in the dark...
Nigel K. Daw has sent these pictures of the Emu Mustangs packed on pallets in the rear of the Rossair hangar at Parafield which he
took on 13 January 1968. Above is A68-35, below A68-87 and bottom A68-72.
And finally...
