While the United States has a Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) arrangement which commits nominated civil aircraft to military airlift in contingencies, Australia's arrangements for military utilisation of civil aircraft have tended to be on an ad hoc basis. The best known example is the large scale use of civil airliners for mass evacuation following Cyclone Tracy in Darwin, 1974. This photoessay depicts a wide range of civilian aircraft used primarily for domestic air transport and other operations, between 1979 and 2012.

Photos and text © 1979 - 2012 Carlo Kopp; Photographs produced using a 35 mm Exacta VX500 with a 50 mm Domiplan f/2.8 lens with scans performed using a Nikon 5000ED to 4000PPI; Pentax SF7 with SMC f3.5-4.5/35-70 mm; Mamiya M645/1000S with Sekor C 80 mm f/2.8C, Sekor C 210 mm f/4.0, Nikon D90 with Nikkor 70-300mm D-ED or Nikkor AF-S DX 35 mm f/1.8G.

Qantas A330-200 VH-EBN at YPPH November, 2011 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 70-300mm D-ED).

Jetstar A320-232 VH-VGQ at YPPH November, 2011 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 70-300mm D-ED).

Qantas 737-838 VH-VZB at YPPH November, 2011 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 70-300mm D-ED).

Virgin Blue 737-7Q8 VH-VBK (above) 737-8Q8 VH-VOW (below) at YMML November, 2011 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 70-300mm D-ED).

MacRobertson Miller Airlines Fokker F.28-1000 Fellowship VH-FKA RMA Pilbara at YBWX in 1980. This aircraft was reduced in 1996, after many years of Ansett service (Exacta VX500).

Virgin Blue ERJ190 VH-ZPF at YPPH November, 2011 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 70-300mm D-ED).

Virgin Australia ERJ190AR VH-ZPT at YSCB February, 2012 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 35 mm f/1.9G).

Bombardier Dash-8 / Q400NG VH-LQB at YSCB February, 2012 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 35 mm f/1.9G).

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Fokker F27

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The workhorse of Bristow helicopter operations on the North-West Shelf in 1980 was a Westland Wessex Mk.60, a civilian variant of the Royal Air Force Wessex HC.2 assault helicopter, capable of carrying 16 personnel. The Wessex is a Rolls-Royce Gnome gas turbine powered derivative of the earlier Sikorsky S-58 / CH/UH-34D, best known due to its extensive use by the US Marine Corps during the Vietnam conflict. While the Wessex was mostly operated from the Bristow landing pad near the main workshop site, it would refuel at the Barrow Airport (above), and at least one of the pilots (formerly IAF) enjoyed performing rolling runway takeoffs with this aircraft (Exacta VX500).

Polair 33 VH-PZG, configured as an air ambulance, over the eastern suburbs of Melbourne in December, 2011 (Nikon D90 with Nikkor 70-300mm D-ED).