Hi, it’s Adrian Bo, and today I’m at Wackett Street, right on the corner of Wild Street, here in the beautiful Nagle Park to tell you the story about the extraordinary man this street was named after. This is one of my favourite community news reports, given I am a very curious and fascinated student of wartime history. Sir Lawrence Wackett is widely regarded as the father of the Australian aircraft industry. He was born in 1896 in Townsville, Queensland, and was one of only 12 qualified Australian pilots to take part in World War I, the Great War, when he flew to Egypt to take part in the Sinai and Palestine campaign. This is of special historical interest to me given my mother was born in Egypt. As well as being one of the few qualified Australian pilots, Wackett was also an engineer, and when he experimented with attaching a Lewis gun in Egypt to the upper wing of his BE2C, a biplane, it massively improved the ability to fight. This established his reputation as a mechanical innovator, which led to more responsibility. His next innovation during the war was to devise a small parachute that would enable the dropping of supplies to troops on the ground.

 This was adopted across all elements of the allied air forces and was a game changer during the war. After the war, he took over a disused army factory on the corner of Frenchmans Road and Avoca Street in Randwick where I sell properties today. Here, he devised and built a new type of aircraft designed as a coastal reconnaissance sea plane which was called the Wackett Widgeon. That factory was eventually closed down in 1931 due to commercial pressure, but Wackett continued to evolve as one of the most influential men in the Royal Australian Air Force though, now, very much as a civilian. At the start of World War II, he ran a company called the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation which launched the very first mass-produced aircraft in Australia, the CAC Wirraway. During the war, he was instrumental in developing aircraft for the Australian Royal Air Force, though, sadly, his son, Wilbur, was killed in action in 1944 towards the backend of the Second World War. Lawrence Wackett himself lived until 1982, and four years after his death, the company he ran, the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation stopped trading. However, in 1991, their disused factory in Melbourne was turned into the Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre for Aerospace Design and Technology as part of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University.

I think stories like these are really important to keep alive as Wackett Street commemorates a man that made an enormous contribution to our country, yet I’m sure very few locals know his story and I feel it’s my duty and my personal obligation as a local history buff to remind us all and to stamp out the ludicrous cancel culture narrative. Now I have sold four homes in Wackett Street during my 32-year career, and the official record for Wackett Street was set in 2017 when number 24, a five-bedroom house, was sold for $2.55 million. Properties on the street are very tightly held. In fact, 62% of owners have lived here for over 10 years, and the average owner-occupier has lived here for 14 years and 10 months. Now that’s way above the Eastern Suburbs average. Wackett Street itself runs into Nagle Park where I am here today. And just on the other side of Nagle Park, I recently sold a small one-bedroom unit at 46a at 17 Green Street for $635,000 being a record in the building. As well as 907 Anzac Parade in Maroubra, a large four-bedroom house which I sold that had three bathrooms and is only a few blocks from here which I sold for over $2 million. Our agency also sold 25 Walsh Avenue, which is the next street along, 2 weeks ago for $2,155,000. The story of Sir Lawrence Wackett crossing two World Wars should be an inspiration to many of us. I hope you all had a fantastic Easter and that the autumn sun continues to shine. Now, always remember your home is worth more with Adrian Bo.