In the beginning... there was the Douglas DC3 twin propeller engined, all metal, low winged monoplane passenger aircraft, which was fitted with a tail wheel as many designs of that generation were. Its first flight was in December of 1935. Despite the depths of the Great Depression, it was the glamourous way to travel. The original models even had, I kid you not, sleeper beds proving that lie flat business class was a thing long before now. It may surprise you to learn that only 607 were built, ending in 1943.

"But... they used to be everywhere", I hear you say. True that. For the second World War came along and with it demands to be able to do logistics faster and further than it had ever been done before. That meant air lift capacity. And there was already a robust little design called the DC-3 which, with a little tweaking, could do exactly that. Reinforce the floor, change the rear door to a cargo one, add some hoist attachments, put a dome in the ceiling for navigation, tweak the engines... and voila, you already have the basis for a transport aircraft.

Over 10 thousand of them, in over 60 variants.

The military version acquired the name C-47 Skytrain. In British and Commonwealth use, it was called the Dakota. The name was derived from the name Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft apparently, which explains WHAT, but nothing explains WHY the British decided to apply a new name when the plane already had a perfectly serviceable one, and one which represented its purpose in life. That said, I'd say that internationally the name Dakota is more widely recognised than Skytrain.

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) operated several variants of the Dakota including the base model C-47, the C-47A and the C-47B. This was, in fact, an RAAF C-47B, although it spent a very small amount of time (like, a few days) in the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) first. Built in Oklahoma City as a C-47B-45-DK, it went into service with the then United States Army Air Force as 45-0957 in early 1945. By August of that year it was transferred to the RAAF as A65-124. According to the description alongside the aircraft at the Museum, it arrived at No 3 Aircraft Depot in Amberley QLD on 7 August.

There is a picture on the Australian War Memorial website of this aircraft. The caption reads:
Finintigu, PNG. 1952-04-01. Douglas C47 Dakota transport aircraft A65-124 of no 10 (general reconnaissance) squadron RAAF, Townsville, QLD, bogged after an accident on landing at an airstrip in the highlands of PNG.

The problem is that I can't find any evidence that 10 Squadron (which post war did and does signals intelligence) ever used C-47s. So... with two exceptions, I have no idea what the aircraft really did between August 1945 and June 1981, when it was transferred to the Bull Creek museum:
(a) It did get stuck in the mud in New Guinea for 3 months, there's photographic evidence of that, regardless of whether it was with 10 Squadron or not; and
(b) The sign next to the aircraft claims that it replaced a C-47 that was destroyed in Cyclone Tracy (December 1974) and did maritime patrols from there for the next 5 years.

But aside from that...

Its last flight was from RAAF Pearce (the main WA base, 35 km north of Perth) to Perth Airport for the handover to the Museum. It had flown 12,477 hours.

Also don't ask me what the "Flag Ship 45-957" thing on the nose is. I have no idea.

Addendum: My personal opinion is that Facebook is a sociopathic organisation that steals other peoples' intellectual property (including the images in this gallery) despite being explicitly denied permission to do so.