E XPRESS Who The
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Locally owned and proudly independent
was Rex Budd? FEATURE STORY
By Carl Portella
A
t their first meeting of the New Year on Wednesday January 21, the Mareeba Shire Council unanimously passed the naming of the Rex Budd Memorial Park located at the Mareeba Airport. Who was Rex Budd? Flight-Lieutenant Rex R Budd was a Vietnam veteran and war hero and was instrumental in pioneering the helicopter mustering industry in Queensland from his base at the Mareeba Airport. Rex Budd was born at the family farm at Murwillumbah, NSW, on the 5th of September 1935; one of five children born to Rex (Snr) and Alma Budd. He is survived by his brother Arthur, who still lives on the family farm and his sister Barbra, who lives close by; brothers Jim and John have since passed.
His brother Arthur fondly recalls: “We had model aeroplanes when we were kids and I suppose that’s where he got the lifelong ambition of flying. When he left TAS at the Armadale High School he was 17, he went jackarooing for a while, but shortly after he joined the National Training Corp in 1954 where he received a trophy for the best overall trainee of the Corps; and that’s where he learned how to fly fighter jets. “He left the Air Force after a few years, came back to the farm, but when the cattle recession of the 1960’s affected farmers, he returned to the Air Force; but they said he was too old to be a fighter pilot, so he turned to helicopters”. Rex had two tours of duty in Vietnam, with No 9 squadron stationed at Vung Tau, where he was the first RAAF helicopter pilot to log 1000 flying hours in the war zone.
Rex Budd was a distinguished war hero. Inset, Rex in his helicopter, where he pioneered cattle mustering.
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