Massive crowd at Bre for Hercules visit
- thewesternherald
- Jun 12
- 1 min read
Story and pictures Darren Masters
On Saturday morning an RAAF Lockheed-Martin C130J-30 Super Hercules conducted some ‘fly pasts’ at the Brewarrina airstrip impressing the crowd before a smooth touchdown on Brewarrina’s 1.4km long runway 21.
The moves were majestic and refined.
The aircraft came from Richmond, with a flight time of approximately 1.5 hours. This was an extra special flight as at the controls was RAAF Richmond-based Flight Lieutenant Tjapukai “Tjap” Shaw.
The 30-year-old originally hails from Brewarrina, having spent the first 4 years of his life there before moving on to Dubbo and Wellington.
Tjapukai later moved from Dubbo to Brisbane to take up a career as a barber before joining the RAAF in 2018 as part of the RAAF’s inaugural Indigenous Liaison Officer course.
His skill and dedication caught the attention of senior officers who encouraged Tjapukai to consider pilot training.
“It turned out that Tjapukai had the reflexes, the focus and the drive and two years later he is in the cockpit of a Hercules”, said his massively proud father, Zeke Shaw.
Well over 100 people turned up to meet Flight Lieutenant Tjapukai Shaw and to see the Hercules aircraft, including a big turnout of his family from the Bre district. […]
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