Members of the Rathmines Catalina Flying Club can barely contain their excitement that the flying boat they bought about two years ago will circle the former RAAF base at Rathmines on Sunday, on its way to Sydney for further repairs.

Its journey has been an epic to rival the hundreds of bombing raids and reconnaissance missions that went behind enemy lines in the war.

The Catalina has passed through 12 countries, refuelling at each stop, since leaving Portugal last month.

The flying boat left Mumbai just hours before the first shots were fired in the terrorist siege of India's financial capital last week.

It uses 400 litres of fuel an hour and it has cost at least $350,000 to restore and bring the aircraft from Europe to Australia.

"The last time we had a Catalina fly [at Rathmines] was in 1981," Catalina Flying Memorial Committee member Bill Hitchcock said.

Since arriving in Darwin on Tuesday, the Catalina has made its way to Cairns and is due to reach Rathmines at noon on Sunday.

A large crowd is expected to see the famous flying boat complete several circuits of the base before continuing to Bankstown, where it will be modified before returning to its permanent home on Lake Macquarie.

The plane will be the second working Catalina in Australia but the only one that can operate from land and water.