Local link to Flying Corps commemoration

THE Airforce Association will commemorate the one hundred years since the Armistice of WW1 at the Australian Flying Corps Memorial at RAAF Base Point Cook – the birthplace of military aviation in Australia – on Sunday 4 November.

Ballarat Branch Air Force Association member Noel Hutchins, a RAAF veteran of 20 years, stumbled across the tale of the Australian Flying Corps first casualty, Ballarat resident George Mertz, while helping organise the commemoration event.

Mr Merz, a graduated in medicine at the University of Melbourne, with a keen interest in aviation was selected for the first military flying course conducted at Point Cook in November 1914.

That same month Mr Merz, the second officer to gain wings in military flying in Australia, enlisted.

He left Australian in May 1915, joining up with an earlier deployed force in Basra, Iraq where he flew reconnaissance operations.

On 30 July 1915, aged 24 Lieutenant Mertz together with the New Zealand officer Lieutenant William Burn, flying south to Basra was forced to land due to mechanical failure during a dust storm.

The damaged aircraft was located and recovered but neither body was found.

A plaque to the memory of Lt Merz resting at the base of an Aleppo pine tree, grown from seed of the original Lone Pine at Gallipoli is situated at Ballarat General Cemetery.

While the torch light ceremony is commemorating the centenary of the Armistice, honouring the memory of all who served, Mr Hutchins will spare a thought for Lt Mertz.

An historical aircraft fly past, the Commemoration Service and a poppy tribute will take place at RAAF Base Point Cook at the Australian Flying Corps Memorial on Sunday 4 November at 7.00pm – 8.30pm.

North and West gates will open at 6.30pm. The Air Force Association recommends bringing a torch and a chair or rug. For further information contact www.raafavic.org.au or 9813 4600.