5 NOVEMBER 1944
CRASH OF A BOOMERANG AIRCRAFT
ON A HILLSIDE NEAR MOUNT MOLLOY, QLD

Boomerang

RAAF Boomerang, A46-192, of 5 Squadron based at Mareeba, crashed into thick jungle on a hillside near Mount Molloy on 5 November 1944.   The Boomerang was flying low during a tactical reconnaissance exercise when he crashed into the hillside.  It exploded on impact and burnt fiercely killing the pilot Flying Officer Robert John Granger (434950) who was subsequently buried at the Atherton War Cemetery.

William Moroney contacted me on 8 May 2022 and shared the following with me:-

"It was still burning when we went up the logging track and although I was only a little kid back then I remember it. Apparently it came around the top of the hill where our house was and was low flying, for Mum told me years later that she looked out our kitchen window and saw it pass below with the canopy slid back. A machine gun from one wing was kept in George Swindley's feed shed for years and once I tried to get it to work but thankfully failed to do so. Our house was the highest on what is now called Santowski Street and across and up from it a bit was either a spotting or listening post. Actually, there were only two houses up there then, the Mill house where my grandparents lived, and ours. The noise from the aircraft based at Mareeba flying over on their way to PNG etc. must have filtered down and affixed themselves to my bones for I was a professional pilot for 55 years."

NOTE:- Guy Gowan contacted me in May 2000, an told me that the Boomerang at Mount Molloy was located up Spear Creek just off an old logging track. The last time Guy had visited the site a fair bit of the wreckage had been collected by a rebuilder down south. Guy said there are other aircraft crashes in the area that he had been looking for over the years but it would seem the wrecks have been removed as no trace can be found near the reported positions. Guy said he had given the crash sites to Richard Rudd and he was trying to locate them from his aerial photo collection .

REFERENCE BOOK

"Diary of WWII - North Queensland"
Complied by Peter Nielsen

"Aircraft of the RAAF 1921- 71"
By Geoffrey Pentland & Peter Malone

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Guy Gowan and William Moroney for their assistance with this web page.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 9 February 1999

This page last updated 09 May 2022