Iconic 'lucky' bomber G for George returns to the Australian War Memorial
G for George is one of the memorial's most beloved and well-known exhibits and has been in storage for the past five years while the memorial underwent significant redevelopment.
Hundreds of people lined Anzac Parade in Canberra to see the aircraft's fuselage return to the memorial under police escort. The aircraft will now be reassembled to return to public display.
Murray Vogt's father Brian flew with the 460 Squadron, of which G for George was a part, in the war.
Mr Vogt was among those watching on.
"Dad was pretty stoic and didn't really talk about bad experiences, he spoke of mateship and sacrifice.
"It's a great thing for people to see and understand some of the sacrifice people have made."
AWM director Matt Anderson described the aircraft as a "significant" part of the institution's collection.
"Of all the moments this morning, the most powerful moment for me was when school children spontaneously applauded as she came around the roundabout," he said.
"It just reminded me of the first time I saw George — I was 10 years old — and they will have that memory now forever.
"It's a very powerful moment, it's a historic moment."
The aircraft carried out 89 bombing missions over Germany and occupied Europe between 1942 and 1944.
There were zero casualties among the 250 aircrew who flew on George throughout the war, leading many to believe the aircraft was "lucky", according to AWM senior historian Lachlan Grant.
"There were no casualties amongst the aircrew flying on George itself but over 80 of the aircrew who flew G for George were later killed in operations flying in other Lancasters and other squadrons," he said.
Dr Grant said George had "a lot of very near misses", returning to base damaged on several occasions.
Over the next month, the remaining parts of G for George will be transported to the war memorial where it will be fully reassembled.
It will form the centrepiece of a new exhibition, opening to the public next year, after renovations at the memorial are complete.
Emily Hyles, a curator at the memorial, said the exhibition would provide powerful new insights for visitors.
"We have got a lot of new objects that have never been on display before and in doing that we can tell our visitors a whole range of new stories," she said.
Her fellow curator Garth O'Connell said George was an "icon".
"It has been a professionally and personally very rewarding experience to help put George back on display and to help bring other stories to life."
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"So what we know is that if someone comes to a homeless service and can get that early intervention support, so they come to a homelessness service, they're at risk of homelessness, in 80 per cent of circumstances, they don't become homeless. So the homeless service can help negotiate issues that may have arisen with the landlord, might be able to help assist with some arrears if that's the issue. Or sometimes if it's family breakdown, often we have young people who are experiencing homelessness because of conflict or difficulties at home. And a homelessness service might be able to assist that young person to return safely home if that's possible, or to stay safely perhaps with another family member." The problem, she says, is that with surging demand for these services, those not yet in crisis can't be prioritised. "But the problem is that when people come to a homelessness service, they've got so many people who just don't have accommodation that evening that they're triaging the support that's available. And so it does end up going to someone who is in that more immediate and desperate circumstance, but then down the track, the problem is, is that it's much harder to rehouse people than it is to stop the tenancy breakdown." With nationwide housing supply issues, even those with secure employment are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable, appropriate housing. Dr Erika Martino is a VicHealth Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Health Policy at the University of Melbourne. She says that racism can also be a barrier to getting rentals. "Our work and also more broad evidence in the sector suggests that racism in the rental market is widespread, but it's often under-reported and also extremely hard to prove. 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And even we see discrimination from time to time where people are working for Aboriginal organisations that there's an assumption around Aboriginality where they don't get the same kind of opportunities to access private rental markets." Homelessness is not only an issue of housing, but of health. Dr Martino says if rising rates aren't dealt with, Australia's health system will also be impacted. "There is a large body of evidence both generated from within my research group and internationally that shows that homelessness and housing insecurity are strongly linked to poor, physical and also poor mental health outcomes. So for example, people experiencing homelessness face higher rates of chronic illness, injury, disability, and also premature mortality. And mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and trauma are both causes and consequences of housing instability. " If the rate of Indigenous people accessing homelessness services in Victoria were scaled up to the general population of Victoria, it would be around 1.2 million people. If 1.2 million Victorians were accessing homelessness services, it would likely be declared a national emergency. Kate Colvin says the longer this crisis goes unaddressed, the more investment will be needed down the line. "So the main issue with federal and state interventions in homelessness is that there's just simply not enough resourcing. So for example, when we have a health crisis like COVID , there was a huge surge in investment into hospitals because there was a recognition that more people would need that emergency intervention. But we have had a growing and growing and growing housing crisis in this country, and the governments just haven't responded by increasing investment in homelessness services. " While the Australian government has committed to building more homes, not all forms of housing are appropriate for everyone. Dr Martino says problems often arise when social housing models are treated as one size fits all. "There are in particular certain housing forms that are, or models that don't work particularly well. So for example, shared or high density settings, housing can often retraumatise women who have been experienced abuse or violence. And some of my research, having spoken to some women who've been through say, the crisis accommodation system because there's not enough crisis accommodation available, often women will end up in motels due to insufficient supply, and this is actually placed or places women at further risk. And this will sometimes mean that women end up returning to unsafe family homes. So they're essentially forced to choose between homelessness and violence." The Australian Government's Closing the Gap Target aims to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in appropriately sized housing to 88 per cent by 2031. While improvements have been made, the government is not on track to meet those targets. Darren Smith says that to provide culturally safe and appropriate housing for Aboriginal people, there needs to be more investment in the Aboriginal community controlled sector. "The first thing you need to do when you need to address homelessness is you need to be able to provide people with a home. And we have 7,000 Aboriginal people across Victoria at the moment that are seeking social housing, and we need to make sure that the Aboriginal community controlled sector is supported so that they can actually provide that housing." Kate Colvin says if the government wants to see serious improvements, it must put First Nations-led organisations in charge of leading the efforts. "Homelessness Australia is seeking to resolve that by really calling for a change in direction from the government. So we want to see a dedicated First Nations led housing and homelessness plan to really put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in charge of what the solutions are and delivering those resources. Because what we can see is that it hasn't worked when governments have just made decisions for First Nations communities and delivered resources in ways that haven't been successful."
