Adastra never owned or operated Mosquitoes but this was apparently not for the want of trying. On 5 March 1956, Adastra's Managing Director, H. T. "Bunny" Hammond, wrote to the Regional Director of Civil Aviation (NSW) to enquire if the Department's attitude to the acceptability of Mosquito aircraft had changed since September 1953, "at which time we had offered to us, several Mosquito type aircraft, for use on aerial photographic survey." Adastra had rejected this offer based on Departmental advice that their policy was that no Certificate of Airworthiness would be issued for any type of ex-service aircraft. The correspondence noted that a temporary approval had been granted to "Mr. Oates who flew a Mosquito in the London to Christchurch race."

It is not known how many Mosquitoes had been "offered" to Adastra in 1953 or if indeed the "offer" was instigated by an expression of interest on Adastra's part. It is possible that Adastra had itself explored the availability of Mosquitoes through normal disposals channels. At this time Adastra was transitioning from Ansons to Hudsons so the Mosquito could have been one of several types under evaluation. What is reasonably certain however, is that Adastra's renewed interest in Mosquitoes in 1956 would have resulted from an offer of two Mosquitoes from another established aerial survey operator who had flown the type since 1954.

In early 1954, the U.S. Army Map Service awarded a high altitude (36,000 feet) aerial photography contract to a joint venture between Aero Service Corporation of Philadelphia and Fairchild Aerial Surveys Inc. of California. This joint venture company was known as World Wide Aerial Surveys Inc. The contract called for coverage of previously unmapped areas of Sarawak and Sabah, Borneo. It transpired that WWAS had neither the aircraft nor the pilots to perform this contract. Accordingly, WWAS sought the advice of Sydney based aircraft parts dealer, Sepal, headed by Morry Lawrence with whom Aero Service and Fairchild had previous business dealings. His advice was that WWAS should examine a number of RAAF Mosquito P.R. Mk 41 which were awaiting disposal after having been withdrawn from service the previous year. These aircraft had served with No 87 (Photo Reconnaissance) Squadron so they were ideal for the proposed operation.

WWAS identified two aircraft (A52-306 and A52-313) as being most suitable and in May 1954, these were duly purchased, along with a quantity of engines and spares. The first aircraft, A52-306, was ferried from Amberley to Mascot on 17 May 1954 by Max Garroway and Aero Service Operations Manager, Joe Mullen. On 22 May, Max Garroway ferried the second aircraft, A52-313, from Tocumwal to Mascot. By this time, A52-306 had been placed on the U.S. Register as N1596V and within days A52-313 had become N1597V. At this time, Max Garroway was still serving in the RAAF but he resigned his commission when offered a job by Joe Mullen.

After survey modifications and test flying at Mascot, the two Mosquitoes positioned to Labuan to commence the contract in June 1954. Because of unfavourable weather conditions, very little flying was achieved and the survey was abandoned in mid September. The two Mosquitoes were ferried via Darwin to Camden where they were stored pending further work.

In late 1954, Max Garroway test flew both Mosquitoes at Camden. (Max Garroway later advised that N1596V never flew again after this test flight.) By this time, Morry Lawrence and Sepal were Australian agents for WWAS and he began pursuing photo survey work. In the meantime, Aero Service were awarded a WAPET contract to fly an aeromagnetic survey in the Broome area and N1597V was reconfigured for this purpose, operating under the Sepal aerial work licence. Despite its wooden construction, the bonding of the Mosquito airframe was not entirely suited to aeromagnetic work and this required considerable work to minimise "noise". What was most unusual about the Mosquito was that its wooden airframe allowed the magnetometer sensors to be located within the fuselage, thus eliminating the need for a stinger or a towed bird. Max Garroway positioned N1597V from Camden to Broome on 21 May 1955. The survey, which was conducted at an altitude of 2,000 feet and a speed of 275 knots, took 90 flights to complete. At the end of the contract, N1597V departed Broome on 3 September 1955 to be stored again at Camden.

In March 1956, Adastra approached the Department of Civil Aviation to ascertain if their policy towards the Mosquito had changed since Adastra first expressed interest in the aircraft in 1953. By this time, Adastra was well established as a Hudson operator with four of the type in service so their renewed interest in the Mosquito is difficult to understand, unless the two WWAS Mosquitoes had been offered to them at a "giveaway" price. The last RAAF Mosquitoes had been withdrawn from service by late 1953 so it is unlikely that the aircraft on offer to Adastra could have been anything but the two WWAS Mosquitoes. In any case, DCA's less than encouraging response would appear to have put paid to Adastra's final flirtation with de Havilland's "Rhapsody in Glue".

N1597V did not fly again until July 1956, by which time DCA's patience with the ongoing operation of Mosquitoes was becoming strained. A compromise resulted in WWAS being permitted to operate the Mosquito on aerial surveys at 25,000 feet provided that the aircraft were placed on the Australian Register and scrapped after twelve months.

In July 1956, both Mosquitoes were sold to World Wide Aerial Surveys (Aust) Pty Ltd who, later the same month, sold them to Sepal Pty Ltd. On 24 July 1956, Sepal applied to DCA to register N1596V as VH-WWS. From the outset, the Department of Civil Aviation had major concerns over the provision of an adequate emergency exit for the camera operator who was to be located in the rear fuselage. On 9 August 1956, Sepal advised the Department that Bell Aero Design had been engaged as stress and design engineers and that Sepal had adopted the following policies:

On 16 October 1956, the aircraft was issued with a (two day) permit to fly as VH-WWS, however it wasn't until 2 November that it was officially entered on the Australian Register.

Survey operations had resumed in August 1956 when N1597V began a government contract based out of Tamworth. This contract was completed on 29 October and the aircraft returned to Camden the following day. Around this time, Max Garroway left WWAS to join Adastra.

After a series of test flights in December 1956, VH-WWS entered service in January 1957 on a survey in the Orange district. This contract lasted until the end of January when the aircraft returned to Camden.

In February 1957, Ken Rowlands left WWAS to join Adastra, followed soon after by Kevin Pavlich. Others to leave WWAS for Adastra included Les Taylor and Bruce Gregory.

In July 1957, the Department of Civil Aviation advised Sepal that the Certificate of Airworthiness for VH-WWS would be extended until 1 September 1957 but on 20 August, Morry Lawrence advised DCA that VH-WWS had been permanently withdrawn from service. Not long after, both Mosquitoes were stripped of useful components and burned at Camden. When later asked why he burned the aircraft, Morry responded to the effect that he had promised DCA that he would do so, although he was clearly unhappy with this requirement.

The resultant funeral pyre marked the end of Mosquito operations in Australia.