Even later in life, Bas Wie didn't often let the rules get in the way of a good adventure.

At a memorial service for the 82-year-old who died last week in Darwin 70 years after his infamous arrival, Jeni Wie said her fondest memories of her father were their long, meandering walks.

She said her father's curious nature dictated the direction and sometimes led them a little off track.

"Signs such as 'Do not enter', 'No trespassing', 'Authorised personnel only' didn't seem to faze him," she said.

"He would just give it a go and see how far he could push his irreverence and mischievousness.

"But his rascally nature could get him into a pickle sometimes."

There was the time he stole a chicken as a hungry young boy on Timor's Savu Island, risking violent punishment by the occupying Japanese forces.

And the time in 1946 when, at the age of 12, he crept into the undercarriage of a Darwin-bound Dutch DC-3 aeroplane not long before it left the tarmac in Kupang, Indonesia.

The National Archives' files on Bas Wie include hundreds of newspaper clippings. ( 666 ABC Canberra: Louise Maher )

Bas Wie became a household name after the plane landed three hours later and he was found unconscious and battered in the plane's wheel compartment.

His adopted sister, Sister Bernadette, told those gathered at Wednesday's memorial that overwhelming public support for her brother saved him from deportation under the White Australia policies in place at the time.

"Many people made a considerable contribution to Bas's life, either through standing up against the policy of the day or by embracing him into their lives and families and enabling him to live the life that he yearned for," she said.

Bas and his wife Margaret Wie. ( Supplied: Wie family )

Bas Wie met and married his wife Margaret and together they raised five children in their Nightcliff home.

When asked by his kids about the large scar on his back, Jeni Wie said her father would tell them that it was where a large butterfly had landed and not that it was from the plane's exhaust pipe.

"Bas was tough until the end," she said.

"As dad approached the big Pearly Gates I reckon there would not have been any signs saying 'Do not enter', 'No trespassing' — the sign would have said 'Welcome Bas Wie'."