Flying Boat base, Port Moresby

Accession Number ART31656
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 30.6 x 43.2 cm; frame: 33 x 45.4 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description oil on canvas
Maker Freedman, Harold
Place made New Guinea1: Papua New Guinea, Papua, Port Moresby
Date made 1945
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Unlicensed copyright

Description

Depicts Catalina aircraft on standby at the flying boat base, marine section, Port Moresby, New Guinea.

The Catalina aircraft produced in the United States from 1935 over ten years is a twin-engine high winged flying boat. A unique feature of the Catalina are the retractable wing-tip floats which are detailed in the close up of the tail section on the right hand side.

During the Second World War Freedman enlisted in the RAAF and was appointed as a war artist attached to the RAAF Historical War Records Section and he worked here from 1944 to 1945, in Borneo, Noemfoor and around Australia.

Related information