Fleet History
TAA's first Twin Otter, VH-TGR, was accepted at de Havilland Canada's Downsview plant on 29 July 1966 and arrived in Sydney the following month. It was based in Papua New Guinea to operate TAA's Sunbird services, flying its first revenue service at the end of October 1966. Further aircraft followed over the next few years across the Series 100, 200 and 320 variants, registered in the VH-TG- block, as TAA built up a fleet suited to New Guinea's mountain airstrips and Queensland's short regional and island routes.
Like several other TAA aircraft of the era, individual planes were given names — VH-TGS was named Marawaka, and VH-TGH carried the names Daru and later Charles Grimes after it moved from New Guinea to TAA's mainland network.
More detailed information on the TAA de Havilland DHC-6 fleet can be found here.
New Guinea and Queensland Service
TAA's Twin Otters were well suited to two very different environments. In Papua New Guinea, they operated on the Sunbird services network, reaching short highlands airstrips that TAA's larger Douglas DC-3s, Friendships and Bristol Freighters could not always serve. VH-TGH, for example, spent its first three years with Trans-Australia Airlines of Papua New Guinea before returning to the Australian mainland in October 1973.
On the mainland, the Twin Otter helped extend TAA's reach into the Gulf Country and Channel Country regions of outback Queensland, and operated island services along the Queensland coast, including the route from Mackay to Shute Harbour and Brampton Island. VH-TGH was damaged in a landing accident at Shute Harbour in November 1975 while operating on this network; it was repaired and returned to service.
