Australia: Uiver Collection listed as State Heritage

On 28 August 2017 it was officially announced that the Albury City Council’s Uiver Collection had been listed on the State Heritage Register.

Aviation heroes
The collection tells the famous story of the Uiver, a Douglas DC-2 airliner owned by the Netherlands’ KLM that participated in the London to Melbourne Air Race in 1934. Due to a fierce thunderstorm, the Uiver had to make an emergency landing in the town of Albury, in the state of New South Wales. The people of Albury rescued the Uiver by helping it to land safely. The plane continued its journey to Melbourne the next day, taking second place in the great race and winning the handicap. Back in the Netherlands, the Uiver crew were welcomed as heroes and the story became a classic in the history of aviation.

The collection
The Uiver collection is based at the Library Museum in Albury. Among the many items in the collection are numerous letters and photographs; the medal that Albury’s Mayor Alfred Waugh received from Queen Wilhelmina in 1935; a table-cloth from the city of Groningen that was gifted to Mayor Alfred Waugh in 1935 and a Uiver commemorative plaque.

Significance
The assessment of significance states: “The story, told through the collection, of the Uiver's emergency landing and assistance by the people of Albury may be historically significant as the catalyst for the significant relationship that developed between Australia and the Netherlands, cemented with ongoing visitation between the two countries and culminating in the establishment of Australia's first migration agreement with a foreign country when signed by Australia and the Netherlands in 1939.”

Overall, the items in the Uiver Memorial Collection are in good condition. The collection is managed by the Albury Library Museum in accordance with national best-practice national standards by a team of professional collection managers and curators.