General News
11 June, 2024
Wally: a magnificent man and his flying machines
Wally Dalitz was a young boy when Charles Kingsford Smith flew into his hometown, Nhill, in his Southern Cross after completing the world's historic first ever solo flight from England to Australia.
Born in Nhill, Wally was the son of Laura and Eddie and the brother of Eunice (deceased) and Maureen.
He was lucky enough to be treated with a joy flight at the age of 11, immediately firing his enthusiasm for flying.
Wally made model planes and joined the air cadets.
After leaving school at 14, he worked in the Nhill post office.
A few years ago, when his doctor wouldn’t renew his driver's licence at the age of 95, he said, "but I’ve been driving around Nhill since I was 14".
Wally enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1942, aged 19, and was posted to Western Junction, Tasmania, where his flying instructor was Walter Campbell - later Sir Walter, a Governor of Queensland.
He learnt to fly Avro Cadets, Tiger Moths and others and graduated on Wirraways in Deniliquin, New South Wales.
Wally became an instructor and eventually was sent to work with Beaufort bombers at the RAAF base at East Sale before being posted to 8 Beaufort squadron in Tadji, New Guinea, where he flew missions at the tail end of World War II.
He loved his time there.
Wally remembered flying a Beaufort on his last bombing mission from Wewak on the north coast of New Guinea in 1945.
When the Japanese surrendered, his missions were to look for missing Allied aircraft and personnel in the jungles and mountains of New Guinea.
Upon his return he married Sheila Mattinson in 1945 and joined his father Edwin in his
tailor/menswear store in Victoria Street, Nhill.
They raised four children - Pamela, Graham, Julie and Margaret - who now live in Queensland and NSW.
He was one of the founding members of the Nhill Aero Club.
Wally, Jack Williams and Keith Oldfield fronted the director of aerodromes and were given a hangar and flight office in Nhill for a peppercorn rent.
The name was later changed to Wimmera Aero Club, for which Wally was chief flight instructor.
The club’s first plane was a Tiger Moth purchased for £230.
In 1957 a unique honour was bestowed on Wally when the club registered its third Tiger Moth as VH-WAL in recognition of the many years of service and enthusiasm he had given to the club.
However, itchy feet and sunnier climes beckoned, so Wally packed up the family and moved to Queensland, then Perth, then back to Victoria - Blackburn, Frankston and Horsham, working in the menswear business - and finally to Brisbane.
Having divorced in 1971, he met and married Ruth Kirkegard in 1977 and eventually settled in Bribie Island, where they established Scoopy’s Icecream Parlour.
Wally loved gardening and at 95 he and Ruth moved to an aged care home in Bribie where he continued to maintain his collection of orchids.
He covered every wall space with photos of his family and friends, planes, certificates, memories of the rebuilding of his beloved Beaufort and reminders of anything that flew.
He had a table filled with a collection of birthday cards from Queen Elizabeth II, the Governor General and the Prime Minister from his 100th, celebrated in a Beaufort hanger.
Special friends travelled from Melbourne and South Australia for the party.
Wally's passion for his lapsed flying hours was revived when he joined the Caboolture Warplane Museum and became the club’s historian and photographer.
In hangar 103 the Beaufort Restoration Group, run by Ralph Cusack and his dedicated team, is restoring the last Beaufort bomber in the hope it will take to the skies to be the only Beaufort in the world still flying.
They were hoping Wally would be the pilot and his name is painted on the side of the fuselage, along with the navigator's and gunner's.
During the project he said: "If they can get it going, I’ll fly it. You never forget: it’s like riding a bike."
Another $1 million is required to complete the project and a GoFundMe account has been set up through www.aahcqld.org.au.
Wally was very spoilt by the team at Caboolture Recreational Aviation, who took him up in a Cessna, and by a friend who took him on a flight in a glider over Bribie and its surrounds.
He took over the controls of both aircraft without any problems and remarked on it often.
While visiting the museum last year he met the Brisbane Biplanes crew, who on hearing his stories took him up for a flight in their Tiger Moth.
Upon checking his log book he found that it was the same Tiger Moth he trained on in 1942 and then instructed on the following year.
Wally Dalitz died on March 27, aged 101 - just a month short of his 102nd birthday.
"We're thrilled Brett from Brisbane Biplanes will be taking Dad’s ashes for his last flight over the Bribie Passage and beyond," one of his daughters said.
Referring to the restoration project, she added: "We may just sneak some of his ashes into the Beaufort where, once again, it may get into the air.
"Everyone loved Dad," she said.
"Always positive, he was everybody’s friend, from the wonderful nursing staff to the local butcher where we’d pop in to buy him some oysters and a neighbour who diligently took him shopping to buy his chocolates and of course the wonderful 'airplane gang'.
"We’ll remember him for his sense of humour and quick-off-the-mark quips right to the last.
"He has left a huge hole in our hearts."