Nobby Bartsch and one of his mates literally tossed a coin to see if they would move to Australia or Canada, even though neither of them could speak English.

Luckily for them, Australia won – and the two young Germans packed their swags.

“I wasn’t even sure where Australia was,” says Nobby. “Where’s Australia? No idea. Oh, you look at the map, right? But there was no Google at the time.

“I was lucky. It’s a beautiful country.”

He was only 19.

Nobby says he came to Australia, one of the booziest countries in the world, because he and his mates were drinking too much in Germany.

He’s a laconic bloke so it’s hard to tell whether he is joking or not.

Nobby arrived in Melbourne but soon moved to Borroloola and has spent most of his life in the Northern Territory.

He has just finished what must surely be one of the most unusual jobs in the country – renovating a Second World War-era fighter plane.

The single-engine Hawker Sea Fury, the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, was developed during the war but didn’t enter service until two years after the conflict ended.

It was used in the Korean War and fought effectively even against the Soviet MiG-15 jet fighter.

Many of the planes ended up in private hands after being decommissioned; the British sold some to the Iraqi military in the 1950s.

Nobby, who is now 81, spent 10 years restoring the Sea Fury at his workshop in Winnellie.

“It has been a labour of love.”

The plane, still bearing its navy insignia, was completely overhauled.

“I had to follow the manufacturer’s book to the letter,” says Nobby.

“The rules are very strict. There’s only yes or no, nothing else.”

He was sad when the job was finally finished in August.

The fighter – capable of reaching 720km/h and weighing about 4.8 tonnes with its four 20mm autocannons removed – looked immaculate as it was dismantled and packed off to a private customer in France.

It was the third and final Sea Fury he had helped restore, despite having to teach himself aircraft mechanics.

Nobby, who is toolmaker-turned-diesel fitter by trade, will miss frightening the neighbours by firing up the old warhorse.

“It’s a terrifying sound.”

The Sea Fury will go through rigorous checks before being flown again, probably in an air show. TQ

The Hawker Sea Fury was a British single-seat fighter developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm, and it holds the distinction of being one of the fastest production piston-engine aircraft ever built. Ironically, despite its “WW2” pedigree, the Sea Fury arrived just too late to see action in that war — it was developed from the land-based Hawker Fury (itself derived from the Tempest) as a lighter, more agile replacement, but only entered squadron service with the Royal Navy in 1945, right as the war was ending. Its combat debut instead came in the Korean War, where it famously downed several Soviet-built MiG-15 jets, a remarkable feat for a propeller fighter against early jet opposition.

Power came from the Bristol Centaurus, an 18-cylinder, twin-row, sleeve-valve air-cooled radial engine — a design that avoided conventional poppet valves in favor of rotating sleeves, which reduced mechanical noise and allowed higher compression ratios. The Centaurus 18 fitted to most production Sea Furies produced around 2,480 horsepower, driving a large five-blade propeller (some versions used a contra-rotating propeller to tame the torque of such a powerful engine on a relatively small airframe).

That power gave the Sea Fury blistering performance for a piston fighter. Top speed was roughly 740 km/h at altitude, with a service ceiling around 35,000 feet and a climb rate that made it highly competitive even against early jets in a turning fight. Range was approximately 1000 – 1600kms depending on fuel and stores carried.

Armament consisted of four 20mm Hispano cannons mounted in the wings, supplemented by underwing hardpoints capable of carrying bombs or unguided rockets, making it a capable ground-attack platform as well as an interceptor. For carrier operations, the wings folded hydraulically, and the aircraft was fitted with an arrester hook and strengthened undercarriage typical of naval fighters.