Heritage researcher/urban planner Jane Goffman led a group of 40 on Anzac Day, 25 April 2023, touring the historic landing ground of Old Canberra Aerodrome – as part of the National Trust’s Dickson Dazzles: Canberra’s Original Aerodrome (1924-1926) Heritage Walk. The walk began at the Heroes of the Air sign, on Dickson Baptist Church lawn. This first sign introduces walkers to the subject of the fatal air crash and its RAAF 3 Squadron victims, and lies just inside the old western fence and gate of the Territory’s original Canberra Aerodrome (1924-26). Participants travelled east, past Dickson Pool along the new pedestrian trail and were treated to the unveiling of a new Canberra Tracks sign, Canberra Aerodrome’s Centrepiece, by the Heritage Minister Rebecca Vassarotti and the sign’s creator and author Jane, with a special reading by poet Dr Tamsin Kerr of her piece ‘On Memory and Forgetting’. The event was followed by a pop-up local history exhibition among the eucalypts and homemade Anzac biscuits, before proceeding to the third sign at Dickson Wetlands, Birthplace of Aviation in Canberra, with its spectacular views north and south over the old landing ground, and toward Mount Ainslie.
