RAAF Base Townsville
Encyclopedia
RAAF Base Townsville (formerly RAAF Base Garbutt) is, along with RAAF Base Tindal
and RAAF Base Darwin
, one of northern Australia's primary defence installations. It is also Headquarters for No. 1 Wing Australian Air Force Cadets
and, along with Lavarack Barracks
, establishes Townsville as a key northern stronghold.
RAAF Townsville houses a significant selection of other military units, including:
, superimposed upon a Castle; surrounded by the words Royal Australian Air Force
; surmounted by a crown; with the motto "Guarding the North" on parchment below it
, and was then further developed as part of Australia's military preparations for the coming war. Plans were being drawn up for the RAAF base well before the commencement of hostilities in Europe
, and the field was fully operational with a squadron
of fighter aircraft
in service fourteen months before Japan entered the war. The base still functions with many of its early buildings performing their original purpose nearly 70 years after their plans were first drawn up.
, but it took in only a small area encircling Castle Hill
. The land which now comprises RAAF Base Townsville became part of the new Thuringowa Division (later Shire) in 1879
, and was first surveyed in an extension of the Townsville urban survey in 1884
. In 1918
the local government
boundary changed, and the land was incorporated into the City of Townsville.
The RAAF site was never privately owned, but remained vacant Crown land
until taken up by the Commonwealth in 1940
. The site was considered too low-lying and swampy for residential or other development, and was proposed in 1868 to be set aside as Town Common under the trusteeship of Townsville City Council for public grazing. Local people cut firewood in the scrub. As late as 1939 when the RAAF first investigated acquiring the site, much of the land was still thick forest.
. The first airfield established in Townsville was an east-west strip in the Thuringowa Shire, on the floodplain south of the Ross River in what is now the Townsville suburb of Murray. In use from the 1920s, it was licensed by the Department of Civil Aviation in 1930. The Garbutt
site was adopted a few years later because it was better drained than the Ross River site, and it provided space for runways orientated into the prevailing winds
to the north-east and south-east. Townsville City Council carried out construction work on two 800 yard gravel runways on the new site, and the new airport was licensed on 26 January 1939. Civil aviation operations commenced on 1 February when a Stinson
airliner of Airlines of Australia landed in front of a mayoral reception, although there were as yet no hangar
s or fuelling facilities, and not even a formed road to the airfield.
on the site. In 1938, the Department of Defence
, realising the likelihood of war between Japan and the USA, had begun planning to improve Queensland’s northern defences, and in late January 1939 while the runways were under construction an RAAF officer was sent to Townsville to select the best site for a military airfield. The proposal to establish an air force base at Townsville arose as part of a general move in 1938-39 to improve defence preparedness
by establishing or upgrading military establishments across northern Australia, particularly at Darwin
and Townsville. The principal function of the base was to provide for the fighter defence of Townsville, and an early plan of the base layout shows three hangars, apparently to house three fighter squadrons. This was revised by late 1939, and scaled back to a one squadron base, staffed by 140 Citizen Air Force and 132 RAAF personnel. This was a substantial base for the time, with an establishment of nearly 10% of the RAAF's total strength. Darwin was planned to be about twice that size.
The Commonwealth
approached Townsville City Council to negotiate for the acquisition of the new airport land in April 1939. Defence had hoped the State would donate the land, but negotiations with the State and Council over the purchase price and compensation for improvements dragged on for some time, and the land was compulsorily acquired
by the Commonwealth in December 1940 in exchange for a payment of £2,500 to the Queensland government. The Commonwealth entered into an agreement with Townsville City Council whereby Council would supply water, sewerage and electricity to the base. Under the agreement between Commonwealth and Council, civil aviation activities were to continue on the site.
on Australia occurred in two phases. Australia was automatically drawn into the war against Germany
in September 1939 as the dominion's foreign policy
was dictated by Britain's
, and for the next two years Australian forces fought in Europe
, North Africa
and the Middle East
, in circumstances very similar to those of World War I
. It was during this phase that RAAF Townsville was constructed.
Plans for the buildings at RAAF Townsville were drawn up by the Chief Architects Office of the Department of Works during the second half of 1939. The hangars and workshops were to be welded steel-framed
buildings, based on contemporary RAF designs for fighter airfields. In early 1940, while the land negotiations were still proceeding, construction commenced on two gravelled runway
s, hangars, workshops, accommodation blocks and mess
es. Construction of the runways and basic facilities was completed before the end of 1940. On 15 October the Townsville Daily Bulletin
described the excitement in Townsville the previous day when an advance party of RAAF personnel arrived by train, and marched down Flinders Street, led by the municipal brass band.: "The main body of the Royal Australian Air Force squadron to be based on the Townsville aerodrome at Garbutt, arrived on Monday morning, and are now quartered in the fine new buildings on the aerodrome site." The Battle of Britain
was still winding down, and for months the news had been full of the exploits of fighter pilots.
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Within the next few days the CA-25 Wirraway
fighters of No.24 Squadron were flown in to the Townsville field, and later supplemented by Hudson light bomber
and reconnaissance aircraft. Newly-built at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation
's Maribyrnong
factory, the Wirraways were the state of the art in the RAAF's fighter arsenal, but were heavy, under-powered and poorly-armed by international standards. The physical form of the base in late 1940 consisted of the two earth runways, accommodation blocks, messes, gymnasium, workshops and one hangar with a control tower
, all recently-completed or still under construction. In May 1941 RAAF Townsville became Northern Area Headquarters RAAF
.
In the first twelve months there were changes to the base layout. There were doubts about Townsville City Council's ability to keep up electricity supply in an emergency, so in 1941 a Powerhouse with its own diesel-powered generator
was built on the base. Australia agreed to train pilots under the Empire Air Training Scheme
, and a second Officers Accommodation Block
was built at RAAF Townsville to house trainees.
Bigger changes were coming. As events moved inexorably toward war in the Pacific
, the United States Army Air Forces
(USAAF) became concerned about securing air routes to re-supply their forces at Clark Field
and elsewhere in the Philippines
. By September 1941, the USAAF was reinforcing its air bases in the Philippines with B-17 heavy bombers, and the Australian War Cabinet
agreed secretly to an American request for space at the Townsville and Darwin air bases to develop their own ferrying facilities. USAAF officers arrived in Townsville in October 1941 to plan the expansion of the new airfield to take larger aircraft and heavier traffic than it had been originally designed for. The existing two gravelled runways were expanded into three sealed runways, and the south-east orientated runway was extended to 5,000 feet long to take heavy bombers and transport aircraft. The expansion was undertaken in six weeks of round-the-clock effort, and was completed on 15 December 1941.
" doctrine, based on the realisation that in the event of Japanese invasion, Australia had only the military resources to defend the industrial south-east of the continent between Brisbane
and Melbourne
. While the Australian government adopted this as a loose principle, it was always intended to hold Townsville as a military base north of this line. In January 1942 the command structure was re-organised, and RAAF Townsville became North-Eastern Area Headquarters RAAF. In April, General Blamey
, commanding Allied Land Forces in the South-West Pacific Area, stationed two Australian Infantry
brigades in a defensive ring around Townsville, but one of these was sent on to Port Moresby a month later.
Air defences
were strengthened simultaneously. The Wirraway fighters which had proved inadequate at Rabaul and Darwin were replaced by Bell P-39 Airacobras, and Townsville's aerial defence was supplemented by RAAF and USAAF Curtiss P-40 Warhawks
. In the surrounding district, strips for dispersal, ferrying, supply and maintenance were built at Bohle River (or Mount St John), Woodstock
, Antill Plains, Reid River and Macrossan. Ross River was occupied by the RAAF, and a USAAF heavy bombardment field was established at Breddan, north of Charters Towers. It was planned to base a second fighter squadron, No.32, at Townsville, but the airstrip did not have sufficient space for two operational squadrons, and the second one was located first at Macrossan, then at Charters Towers
. Although early plans of the Townsville base show three fighter hangars, only one was ever built, presumably because to base more than one squadron of aircraft there would have made the base both too crowded to operate efficiently, and extremely vulnerable to attack.
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The role of the airfield now diversified well beyond the fighter defence of Townsville. North-eastern Australia became the operational theatre of the US Fifth Air Force
, its headquarters in Brisbane, with the headquarters of its V Bomber Command
in Townsville. The USAAF 435th Aerial Bombardment Squadron and 8th Photo Squadron carried out aerial reconnaissance
missions from Townsville over the whole theatre of war from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands
. Ground-based bombers and reconnaissance aircraft from Townsville played a part in the Battle of the Coral Sea
, fought a few hundred kilometres to the north-east in May 1942. In the confusion that characterised the aerial engagement, B-17 bombers of the USAAF 435th Squadron from Townsville bombed an allied naval force including the Australian cruisers Australia
and Hobart
, fortunately without inflicting damage.
The USAAF IV Air Corps Depot was also established in Townsville, its principal functions being the assembly, repair and servicing of USAAF aircraft operating throughout the South-West Pacific theatre of war
. Large maintenance hangars were built alongside the runway north of the original RAAF base. In an ingenious attempt to conceal the air base from aerial observation, a pattern of streets and houses resembling the neighbouring suburb was painted over the southern end of the runways, but this camouflage
either looked unconvincing or was thought unnecessary, for it was abandoned within a few months.
The facilities required for aircraft assembly and repair work soon extended far beyond the perimeter of the original Townsville airfield, and during 1942, new airstrips were built at Aitkenvale
(or Weir) and Stockroute, with a huge complex of hangars, workshops and dispersal
taxiways extending across what are now the suburbs of Vincent
, Heatley, Mount Louisa, Kirwan
and Condon
. This growing complex of airfields brought about a change of name; the base had originally been known as RAAF Townsville in 1939, but the construction of Aitkenvale and Stockroute in 1942 made this designation potentially confusing. The original base was now renamed RAAF Garbutt, the name of the local railway station, to distinguish it from the other airfields in the near vicinity. (Garbutt railway siding had a cattle ramp and yards and was named after its biggest customer, Garbutt Brothers, wholesale butchers.)
In the course of the later war years 1942-45, a large number of RAAF units passed through the Garbutt-Stockroute complex: No. 33 Squadron
(Empire flying boats
) in 1942, No. 40 Squadron
(Sunderlands
and Catalinas
) in 1944, No. 41 Squadron
(Mariners
) in 1942-44, No. 75 Squadron
(Kittyhawks
) in 1942, and No. 86 Squadron (Kittyhawks) in 1943. Many USAAF units were also based at the complex. In the surrounding area, No. 7 Squadron
(Beauforts
) was based at Ross River in 1942-44, No. 8 Squadron
(Beauforts) was based at Bohle River in 1943, No. 30 Squadron
(Beaufighters
) was based at Bohle River in 1942, No. 76 Squadron
(Kittyhawks) was based at Weir in 1942, No. 80 Squadron (Kittyhawks) was based at Weir in 1943-44, No. 82 and No. 84 Squadrons
(Kittyhawks) were based at Weir in 1944, No. 86 Squadron (Kittyhawks) was based at Bohle River in 1944, and No. 5 Repair and Service Unit was based at Bohle River in 1944.
RAAF Townsville was a dry, dusty place for much of the time. Wartime aerial photographs show not a single tree or patch of lawn on the base. The storm drains on the flat ground were often inadequate for runoff, and the runways sometimes flooded during tropical downpours. Engineering contractors were constantly at work improving the base's drainage. Even at the height of the wartime emergency, civilian access to the base seems to have been relatively unrestricted. A 1944 plan of RAAF Garbutt shows that, although there was a main entrance past the guardhouse
, there were also other driveways off Ingham Road into the Officers' Mess, and the unfenced road to the civil aviation area ran past the Sergeants Accommodation Blocks. Contractors and suppliers came and went every day. Local people continued to collect firewood and swim in the waterholes
on the Town Common. Civilians were often invited to mess nights and regularly attended movies and dances in the base Gymnasium.
Garbutt's fighter aircraft briefly played a role in the defence of Australian territory. On three occasions in late July 1942, Townsville was bombed late at night by long-range Japanese flying boats based in Rabaul. These attacks accompanied a general increase in Japanese submarine attacks on shipping along the east coast of Australia, and were probably diversionary in purpose, for they coincided with the Japanese infantry landings at Gona
on the north coast of Papua. All three events were minor nuisance raids and completely ineffectual, with no injuries or significant damage. In the early morning of 28 July a stick of bombs, possibly aimed from high altitude at the general vicinity of the airfield, landed at the northern end of the Town Common near the Many Peaks Range, over 4 km from the nearest buildings at RAAF Garbutt. The heavy anti-aircraft battery on Mount St John, west of Garbutt airfield, went into action, and on the second and third occasions, USAAF P-39 Airacobra fighters from Garbutt base also pursued the bombers. On 29 July a P-39 inflicted damage on the departing Japanese aircraft. Perhaps because of this increasingly spirited opposition, that was the last bombing raid on Townsville.
. The Japanese navy had experienced two decisive defeats, first in the Coral Sea in May, and then at the Midway Islands
in June, seriously damaging Japan’s naval air power, which had been the key to its early victories. From mid-1942 onward, the role of the Townsville bases was no longer the defence of Australia, but logistical support
for the Allied offensive into Japanese-held territory.
An event in September 1942, eight weeks after the last bombing raid on Townsville, showed that the threat had diminished. Tunnels were being dug under the Garbutt runways so that demolition charges could be laid to prevent an invading enemy capturing the airfield in a usable condition. On 22 September the Allied Works Council ordered work on the demolition tunnels to stop, signalling that there was no longer considered to be a threat of invasion of the Australian mainland.
As the war advanced, and operations moved progressively northwards into the Pacific, so Townsville's complex of airfields were gradually turned into a huge rear echelon workshop. The fighter defence function ceased in 1942, and the bomber function lessened during 1943 as the Japanese were progressively defeated in New Guinea and the Solomons. By January 1944 the bomber squadrons had moved on to Rabaul and other bases, and Townsville became the headquarters of USAAF V Air Service Command and RAAF No. 15 Aircraft Repair Depot. The official history of the USAAF gives an indication of the range of technical work carried out there during the last two years of the war:
The depots at Brisbane, Townsville and Port Moresby continued to be marked by the variety of their activities. They not only had to overhaul engines, inspect and repair parachutes, paint aircraft, fill oxygen cylinders, and install armament but they were expected to find all sorts of short cuts and to make odd pieces of equipment from material on hand. The machine shop
at Townsville produced, among other things, special propeller tools, a jig-filing machine, an indicating apparatus for hollow-steel propellers, and an electric arc welder for high-melting point soldering on armatures. ... By September 1943, the Townsville depot had converted some 175 B-25C's
and D's for low-level strafing, and then turned to the B-25G. Between November and the following April, it would add on eighty-two planes two additional .50-cal. machine guns in the nose, two more in the gun tunnel, and a stinger of twin .30's in the tail - modifications requiring 234 man-hours per plane.
In a rationalisation of the joint Australian-American command structure, control of the Garbutt base was taken over by the USAAF in June 1943. Construction and maintenance were handed back to the RAAF in October 1943, but the USAAF remained in control of operations until April 1945. At the close of the war, Garbutt's RAAF fighter squadron (No. 84
) was in the course of conversion to P-51 Mustang
fighters. For some time after the war ended, 84 and 86 squadrons were based in the Townsville area before joining the British Commonwealth Occupation Force
in Japan.
in August 1945, operations rapidly wound down throughout the Townsville military aviation complex, and buildings were being dismantled and sold at auction in the following months. RAAF Garbutt had always been intended as a permanent base, and after the war it shrank back to the size of the base originally planned in 1939 and constructed by late 1940. Some wartime hangars remained in service, and at least one Butler hangar was relocated to the eastern perimeter of Garbutt after Stockroute closed. A large "igloo" or vaulted hangar was erected beside it. No. 11 Squadron
briefly operated Catalinas from Townsville in 1948-49, then in 1949 Garbutt became the base for No.10 Reconnaissance Squadron
, which operated Avro Lincoln
s from the field on long-range maritime reconnaissance patrols, with one aircraft usually detached to Darwin.
With the other airfields in the Townsville suburbs closed, the name of the base reverted to its early form of RAAF Townsville in 1951. The Lincolns required a longer runway, and in 1952 further land to the north was acquired from the Town Common to extend the north-south runway. In March 1956 tropical cyclone
Agnes struck Townsville, damaging buildings at the RAAF base. The Lincoln aircraft were hangared in the two large wartime hangars during the storm, but this was not adequate: the vaulted hangar was damaged, and subsequently had to be demolished. A Lincoln was destroyed and another severely damaged in the hangar failure. Since this experience, aircraft have been flown out of Townsville during tropical cyclones. In 1962, the Lincolns were replaced by Lockheed P2V-7 Neptunes
.
The civil airport, which had operated limited services throughout the war, expanded after 1945, and the airlines moved their operations into some of the wartime hangars relocated from the Stockroute complex. Several of these buildings remained in service for more than twenty years. The 1940 control tower
on Hangar 75 functioned until 1960, when it was replaced by the present brick control tower. Major damage was done to the civil terminal by the even more severe Cyclone Althea in 1971, and there was also some damage to the RAAF base. Learning from the 1956 experience, the Neptune aircraft had been flown out. An international terminal was built in 1981, and in 1987 a new domestic terminal replaced the last of the 1942 hangars. In 1990 the Federal Airports Corporation
acquired the piece of RAAF land occupied by the domestic and international terminals.
The role of RAAF Base Townsville changed in the 1960s and 70s with the general northward shift of Australia's defence bases. In 1960 the majority of Australia's armed forces were still based near the southern capital cities, as they had been since the 1880s, but experience in Malaya
, Sarawak
and Vietnam
changed the emphasis of defence policy to preparedness for limited regional conflicts. The level of military aviation activity at Townsville began to increase after the establishment in 1966 of Lavarack Barracks
, which steadily grew to become Australia's largest Army base, and the Headquarters of the Third Task Force. In 1976, No. 35 Squadron
was based at Townsville in support of Army operations. However, the following year No. 10 Squadron was relocated to RAAF Base Edinburgh
in South Australia, and over thirty years of maritime reconnaissance operations from Townsville ceased.
For the next twenty years No. 35 Squadron operated Caribou transports
and Iroquois helicopters
in support of the Australian Army, but has now been disbanded and incorporated into No. 38 Squadron
, performing the same role. In 1989 No. 9 Squadron
with Black Hawk helicopters was briefly based at RAAF Townsville, before handing over its aircraft to the Australian Army and disbanding, as part of a new policy of placing battlefield helicopters under Army command. The Army occupied dedicated facilities at RAAF Base Townsville, and the 5th Aviation Regiment now operates Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters
from a complex in the south-west corner of the base.
Changes in operational requirements from the 1960s to the 1990s and improvements in technologies such as telecommunications have greatly expanded the physical requirements of RAAF Townsville. New administrative buildings. workshops and accommodation blocks have been added in a series of changes over the last three decades. The most recent developments in 2000-2001 have seen the expansion of operational infrastructure with the provision of Fighter/Strike and Maritime Patrol Ordnance Loading Aprons
, new taxiways and a Fighter/Strike Operational and Technical Support Facility. While Fighter, Strike and Maritime Patrol aircraft are not currently based at Townsville, these facilities are in keeping with current Australian Defence practice of creating "bare bases
" which are ready to receive operational aircraft at short notice.
A RAAF museum is located on base.
RAAF Base Tindal
RAAF Base Tindal is a Royal Australian Air Force air base located near the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory. The base is currently home to No...
and RAAF Base Darwin
RAAF Base Darwin
RAAF Base Darwin is a Royal Australian Air Force base located in the city of Darwin, Northern Territory. The base shares its runway with Darwin International Airport.-History:...
, one of northern Australia's primary defence installations. It is also Headquarters for No. 1 Wing Australian Air Force Cadets
Australian Air Force Cadets
The Australian Air Force Cadets , known as the Air Training Corps until 2001, is a Federal Government funded youth organisation. The parent force of the AAFC is the Royal Australian Air Force...
and, along with Lavarack Barracks
Lavarack Barracks
Lavarack Barracks is a major Australian Army base located in Townsville, Queensland. Lavarack Barracks is currently home to the Army's 3rd Brigade and 11th Brigade. Elements of the 3rd Brigade based at the Barracks include the Combat Signals Regiment, 3rd Combat Services Support Battalion and the...
, establishes Townsville as a key northern stronghold.
Units
| UNIT | FULL NAME | FEG | AIRCRAFT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38SQN | No. 38 Squadron RAAF No. 38 Squadron RAAF No. 38 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force transport squadron. The Squadron was formed in 1943 and saw active service in the Second World War, Korean War and Malayan Emergency. No. 38 Squadron has also supported Australian peacekeeping operations around the world including in Kashmir and East... |
Air Lift Group Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
Beechcraft King Air 350 |
| 44WG DET TVL | No. 44 Wing Detachment Townsville | Surveillance and Response Group Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
|
| HQ395ECSW | Headquarters No. 395 Expeditionary Combat Support Wing | Combat Support Group Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
|
| 1CLS | No. 1 Combat Logicstics Squadron | Combat Support Group Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
|
| 1ATS DET TVL | No. 1 Air Terminal Squadron Detachment Townsville | Combat Support Group Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
|
| 323CSS | No. 323 Combat Support Squadron | Combat Support Group Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
|
| 27SQN | No. 27 Squadron No. 27 Squadron RAAF No. 27 Squadron RAAF is a Royal Australian Air Force reserve and ground support squadron located at RAAF Base Townsville. The squadron was formed on 1 July 1981 to recruit and train RAAF reservists in the Townsville area and in July 2010 took on the additional role of providing support services to... |
Combat Support Group Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
|
| CSTS | Combat Survival Training School | Training Command Structure of the RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:... |
RAAF Townsville houses a significant selection of other military units, including:
- 5th Aviation Regiment - While actually a regiment of the Australian ArmyAustralian ArmyThe Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...
, "five av" is located on the grounds of the RAAF base. 5th Aviation regiment flies S-70A Black Hawk and CH-47D ChinookCH-47 ChinookThe Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 170 knots is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s...
helicopters. - Mechanical Equipment Operations and Maintenance Section (MEOMS0).
- Headquarters, No. 1 Wing Australian Air Force CadetsAustralian Air Force CadetsThe Australian Air Force Cadets , known as the Air Training Corps until 2001, is a Federal Government funded youth organisation. The parent force of the AAFC is the Royal Australian Air Force...
(HQ1WGAAFC) - 101 (City of Townsville) Squadron AAFC
Arms
The RAAF Base Townsville symbol is that of a BrolgaBrolga
The Brolga , formerly known as the "Native Companion", is a bird in the crane family. The bird has also been given the name "Australian Crane", a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithological artist John Gould in his Birds of Australia.The Brolga is a common gregarious wetland bird species in...
, superimposed upon a Castle; surrounded by the words Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
; surmounted by a crown; with the motto "Guarding the North" on parchment below it
History
RAAF Base Townsville was first established in the late 1930s for civil aviationCivil aviation
Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work together to establish common standards and recommended practices...
, and was then further developed as part of Australia's military preparations for the coming war. Plans were being drawn up for the RAAF base well before the commencement of hostilities in Europe
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and the field was fully operational with a squadron
Squadron (aviation)
A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...
of fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
in service fourteen months before Japan entered the war. The base still functions with many of its early buildings performing their original purpose nearly 70 years after their plans were first drawn up.
Early Use of the Land
The municipality of Townsville was created in 18661866 in Australia
See also:1865 in Australia,other events of 1866,1867 in Australia and theTimeline of Australian history.-Events:*1 February - Arthur Macalister becomes Premier of Queensland...
, but it took in only a small area encircling Castle Hill
Castle Hill, Townsville
Castle Hill is an isolated pink granite monolith standing in the heart of the north Queensland city of Townsville. It rises to a height of some 286 metres above sea level and dominates the city skyline. It is one of the most distinctive natural features on the Queensland coast...
. The land which now comprises RAAF Base Townsville became part of the new Thuringowa Division (later Shire) in 1879
1879 in Australia
See also:1878 in Australia,other events of 1879,1880 in Australia and theTimeline of Australian history.- Governors:Governors of the Australian colonies:*Governor of New South Wales – Sir Hercules Robinson , then Sir Augustus Loftus...
, and was first surveyed in an extension of the Townsville urban survey in 1884
1884 in Australia
See also:1883 in Australia,other events of 1884,1885 in Australia and theTimeline of Australian history.-Governors:Governors of the Australian colonies:*Governor of New South Wales – Lord Augustus Loftus...
. In 1918
1918 in Australia
See also:1917 in Australia,other events of 1918,1919 in Australia and theTimeline of Australian history.1918 in Australia was dominated by national participation in World War I...
the local government
Local government in Australia
Local government in Australia is the third tier of government, administered by the states and territories which in turn are beneath the Commonwealth or federal tier. Unlike New Zealand, the US or the UK, there is only one level of local government in all states, with no distinction such as...
boundary changed, and the land was incorporated into the City of Townsville.
The RAAF site was never privately owned, but remained vacant Crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
until taken up by the Commonwealth in 1940
1940 in Australia
See also:1939 in Australia,other events of 1940,1941 in Australia and theTimeline of Australian history.-Incumbents:*Monarch – King George VI*Governor-General – Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Baron Gowrie*Prime Minister – Robert Menzies-State Governors:...
. The site was considered too low-lying and swampy for residential or other development, and was proposed in 1868 to be set aside as Town Common under the trusteeship of Townsville City Council for public grazing. Local people cut firewood in the scrub. As late as 1939 when the RAAF first investigated acquiring the site, much of the land was still thick forest.
Civil Aviation
The beginning of aviation on the land was also an initiative of Townsville City CouncilCity of Townsville (LGA)
The City of Townsville is an Australian Local Government Area located in North Queensland, Australia. The LGA encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas, to the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock and Reid River, and to the North are areas...
. The first airfield established in Townsville was an east-west strip in the Thuringowa Shire, on the floodplain south of the Ross River in what is now the Townsville suburb of Murray. In use from the 1920s, it was licensed by the Department of Civil Aviation in 1930. The Garbutt
Garbutt, Queensland
Garbutt is a residential and industrial suburb in the city of Townsville, in northern Queensland, Australia. Townsville International Airport is located there....
site was adopted a few years later because it was better drained than the Ross River site, and it provided space for runways orientated into the prevailing winds
Prevailing winds
Prevailing winds are winds that blow predominantly from a single general direction over a particular point on Earth's surface. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on the Earth's surface. A region's prevailing and dominant winds...
to the north-east and south-east. Townsville City Council carried out construction work on two 800 yard gravel runways on the new site, and the new airport was licensed on 26 January 1939. Civil aviation operations commenced on 1 February when a Stinson
Stinson Aircraft Company
The Stinson Aircraft Company was an aircraft manufacturing company in the United States between the 1920s and the 1950s.-The Company:The Stinson Aircraft Company was founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1920 by aviator Edward “Eddie” Stinson, brother to Katherine Stinson. After five years of business...
airliner of Airlines of Australia landed in front of a mayoral reception, although there were as yet no hangar
Hangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
s or fuelling facilities, and not even a formed road to the airfield.
RAAF Base Townsville
Almost immediately, there were moves to base military aircraftMilitary aircraft
A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
on the site. In 1938, the Department of Defence
Department of Defence (Australia)
The Australian Department of Defence is a Federal Government Department. It forms part of the Australian Defence Organisation along with the Australian Defence Force . The Defence mission is to defend Australia and its national interests...
, realising the likelihood of war between Japan and the USA, had begun planning to improve Queensland’s northern defences, and in late January 1939 while the runways were under construction an RAAF officer was sent to Townsville to select the best site for a military airfield. The proposal to establish an air force base at Townsville arose as part of a general move in 1938-39 to improve defence preparedness
Military strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops...
by establishing or upgrading military establishments across northern Australia, particularly at Darwin
RAAF Base Darwin
RAAF Base Darwin is a Royal Australian Air Force base located in the city of Darwin, Northern Territory. The base shares its runway with Darwin International Airport.-History:...
and Townsville. The principal function of the base was to provide for the fighter defence of Townsville, and an early plan of the base layout shows three hangars, apparently to house three fighter squadrons. This was revised by late 1939, and scaled back to a one squadron base, staffed by 140 Citizen Air Force and 132 RAAF personnel. This was a substantial base for the time, with an establishment of nearly 10% of the RAAF's total strength. Darwin was planned to be about twice that size.
The Commonwealth
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
approached Townsville City Council to negotiate for the acquisition of the new airport land in April 1939. Defence had hoped the State would donate the land, but negotiations with the State and Council over the purchase price and compensation for improvements dragged on for some time, and the land was compulsorily acquired
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
by the Commonwealth in December 1940 in exchange for a payment of £2,500 to the Queensland government. The Commonwealth entered into an agreement with Townsville City Council whereby Council would supply water, sewerage and electricity to the base. Under the agreement between Commonwealth and Council, civil aviation activities were to continue on the site.
War in Europe
The impact of the World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on Australia occurred in two phases. Australia was automatically drawn into the war against Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in September 1939 as the dominion's foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
was dictated by Britain's
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, and for the next two years Australian forces fought in Europe
European Theatre of World War II
The European Theatre of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945...
, North Africa
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
and the Middle East
Middle East Theatre of World War II
The Middle East Theatre of World War II is defined largely by reference to the British Middle East Command, which controlled Allied forces in both Southwest Asia and eastern North Africa...
, in circumstances very similar to those of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. It was during this phase that RAAF Townsville was constructed.
Plans for the buildings at RAAF Townsville were drawn up by the Chief Architects Office of the Department of Works during the second half of 1939. The hangars and workshops were to be welded steel-framed
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...
buildings, based on contemporary RAF designs for fighter airfields. In early 1940, while the land negotiations were still proceeding, construction commenced on two gravelled runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
s, hangars, workshops, accommodation blocks and mess
Mess
A mess is the place where military personnel socialise, eat, and live. In some societies this military usage has extended to other disciplined services eateries such as civilian fire fighting and police forces. The root of mess is the Old French mes, "portion of food" A mess (also called a...
es. Construction of the runways and basic facilities was completed before the end of 1940. On 15 October the Townsville Daily Bulletin
Townsville Bulletin
The Townsville Bulletin is a daily newspaper published in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It is the only daily paper that serves the northern Queensland region. The paper has a print edition, a free World Wide Web edition, and a subscription digital edition.The newspaper is published by The...
described the excitement in Townsville the previous day when an advance party of RAAF personnel arrived by train, and marched down Flinders Street, led by the municipal brass band.: "The main body of the Royal Australian Air Force squadron to be based on the Townsville aerodrome at Garbutt, arrived on Monday morning, and are now quartered in the fine new buildings on the aerodrome site." The Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
was still winding down, and for months the news had been full of the exploits of fighter pilots.
CAC Wirraway
The Wirraway was a training and general purpose military aircraft manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation between 1939 and 1946...
fighters of No.24 Squadron were flown in to the Townsville field, and later supplemented by Hudson light bomber
Lockheed Hudson
The Lockheed Hudson was an American-built light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built initially for the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and primarily operated by the RAF thereafter...
and reconnaissance aircraft. Newly-built at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation
Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation
The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation was an Australian aircraft manufacturer. The CAC was established in 1936, to provide Australia with the capability to produce military aircraft and engines.-History:...
's Maribyrnong
Maribyrnong, Victoria
Maribyrnong is a suburb 8 km north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Maribyrnong, part of River Ward. At the 2006 Census, Maribyrnong had a population of 8242....
factory, the Wirraways were the state of the art in the RAAF's fighter arsenal, but were heavy, under-powered and poorly-armed by international standards. The physical form of the base in late 1940 consisted of the two earth runways, accommodation blocks, messes, gymnasium, workshops and one hangar with a control tower
Control tower
A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...
, all recently-completed or still under construction. In May 1941 RAAF Townsville became Northern Area Headquarters RAAF
Structure of the RAAF
The Royal Australian Air Force is organised into a number of operational, support and training formations located at bases across Australia.-Formations:...
.
In the first twelve months there were changes to the base layout. There were doubts about Townsville City Council's ability to keep up electricity supply in an emergency, so in 1941 a Powerhouse with its own diesel-powered generator
Diesel generator
A diesel generator is the combination of a diesel engine with an electrical generator to generate electrical energy....
was built on the base. Australia agreed to train pilots under the Empire Air Training Scheme
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan , known in some countries as the Empire Air Training Scheme , was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, during the Second World War...
, and a second Officers Accommodation Block
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
was built at RAAF Townsville to house trainees.
Bigger changes were coming. As events moved inexorably toward war in the Pacific
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, the United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
(USAAF) became concerned about securing air routes to re-supply their forces at Clark Field
Clark Air Base
Clark Air Base is a former United States Air Force base on Luzon Island in the Philippines, located 3 miles west of Angeles City, about 40 miles northwest of Metro Manila. Clark Air Base was an American military facility from 1903 to 1991...
and elsewhere in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. By September 1941, the USAAF was reinforcing its air bases in the Philippines with B-17 heavy bombers, and the Australian War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
agreed secretly to an American request for space at the Townsville and Darwin air bases to develop their own ferrying facilities. USAAF officers arrived in Townsville in October 1941 to plan the expansion of the new airfield to take larger aircraft and heavier traffic than it had been originally designed for. The existing two gravelled runways were expanded into three sealed runways, and the south-east orientated runway was extended to 5,000 feet long to take heavy bombers and transport aircraft. The expansion was undertaken in six weeks of round-the-clock effort, and was completed on 15 December 1941.
War in the Pacific - Defensive Phase
In the face of the Japanese threat, the development of Townsville's new RAAF base during the previous two years was now overtaken by even faster expansion, as Australian and American forces poured into Townsville from January 1942 onward. In recent years much has been made of the now-notorious "Brisbane LineBrisbane Line
The "Brisbane Line" was a controversial defence proposal allegedly formulated during World War II to concede the northern portion of the Australian continent in the event of an invasion by the Japanese...
" doctrine, based on the realisation that in the event of Japanese invasion, Australia had only the military resources to defend the industrial south-east of the continent between Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
and Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. While the Australian government adopted this as a loose principle, it was always intended to hold Townsville as a military base north of this line. In January 1942 the command structure was re-organised, and RAAF Townsville became North-Eastern Area Headquarters RAAF. In April, General Blamey
Thomas Blamey
Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey GBE, KCB, CMG, DSO, ED was an Australian general of the First and Second World Wars, and the only Australian to date to attain the rank of field marshal....
, commanding Allied Land Forces in the South-West Pacific Area, stationed two Australian Infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
brigades in a defensive ring around Townsville, but one of these was sent on to Port Moresby a month later.
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
were strengthened simultaneously. The Wirraway fighters which had proved inadequate at Rabaul and Darwin were replaced by Bell P-39 Airacobras, and Townsville's aerial defence was supplemented by RAAF and USAAF Curtiss P-40 Warhawks
Curtiss P-40
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational...
. In the surrounding district, strips for dispersal, ferrying, supply and maintenance were built at Bohle River (or Mount St John), Woodstock
Woodstock, Queensland
Woodstock is a small rural community and suburb 40 km west in the rural area of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The Woodstock General Store is the local shop, cafe, news agent, service station, bank and post office...
, Antill Plains, Reid River and Macrossan. Ross River was occupied by the RAAF, and a USAAF heavy bombardment field was established at Breddan, north of Charters Towers. It was planned to base a second fighter squadron, No.32, at Townsville, but the airstrip did not have sufficient space for two operational squadrons, and the second one was located first at Macrossan, then at Charters Towers
Charters Towers, Queensland
Charters Towers is a city in northern Queensland, Australia. It is located 137 kilometres inland from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. In 2006 the population was 7,979 people, some 450 fewer than in the 2001 census. During the last quarter of the 19th century the town boomed as the rich gold...
. Although early plans of the Townsville base show three fighter hangars, only one was ever built, presumably because to base more than one squadron of aircraft there would have made the base both too crowded to operate efficiently, and extremely vulnerable to attack.
Fifth Air Force
The Fifth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan....
, its headquarters in Brisbane, with the headquarters of its V Bomber Command
V Bomber Command
The V Bomber Command is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to Fifth Air Force, based at Irumagawa AB, Japan. It was inactivated on 31 May 1946....
in Townsville. The USAAF 435th Aerial Bombardment Squadron and 8th Photo Squadron carried out aerial reconnaissance
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
missions from Townsville over the whole theatre of war from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
. Ground-based bombers and reconnaissance aircraft from Townsville played a part in the Battle of the Coral Sea
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4–8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged...
, fought a few hundred kilometres to the north-east in May 1942. In the confusion that characterised the aerial engagement, B-17 bombers of the USAAF 435th Squadron from Townsville bombed an allied naval force including the Australian cruisers Australia
HMAS Australia (1927)
HMAS Australia was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy . One of two Kent-subclass ships ordered for the RAN in 1924, Australia was laid down in Scotland in 1925, and entered service in 1928...
and Hobart
HMAS Hobart (1939)
HMAS Hobart was a Modified Leander class light cruiser which served in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Originally constructed for the Royal Navy as HMS Apollo, the ship entered service in 1936, and was sold to Australia two years later...
, fortunately without inflicting damage.
The USAAF IV Air Corps Depot was also established in Townsville, its principal functions being the assembly, repair and servicing of USAAF aircraft operating throughout the South-West Pacific theatre of war
South West Pacific theatre of World War II
The South West Pacific Theatre, technically the South West Pacific Area, between 1942 and 1945, was one of two designated area commands and war theatres enumerated by the Combined Chiefs of Staff of World War II in the Pacific region....
. Large maintenance hangars were built alongside the runway north of the original RAAF base. In an ingenious attempt to conceal the air base from aerial observation, a pattern of streets and houses resembling the neighbouring suburb was painted over the southern end of the runways, but this camouflage
Military camouflage
Military camouflage is one of many means of deceiving an enemy. In practice, it is the application of colour and materials to battledress and military equipment to conceal them from visual observation. The French slang word camouflage came into common English usage during World War I when the...
either looked unconvincing or was thought unnecessary, for it was abandoned within a few months.
The facilities required for aircraft assembly and repair work soon extended far beyond the perimeter of the original Townsville airfield, and during 1942, new airstrips were built at Aitkenvale
Aitkenvale, Queensland
Aitkenvale is a suburb of Townsville, North Queensland, Australia. It is named after Thomas Aitken, the original grantee of Portion 38, Parish of Coonambelah. He began subdividing the property during the 1880s, putting 440 quarter-acre residential allotments on the market in 1885...
(or Weir) and Stockroute, with a huge complex of hangars, workshops and dispersal
Force dispersal
Force dispersal is the practice of spreading out soldiers and vehicles in an army. It is used to minimize the effects of collateral damage, such as from bombs and artillery, and increases the number of artillery rounds needed to neutralize or destroy a military force in proportion to the dispersal...
taxiways extending across what are now the suburbs of Vincent
Vincent, Queensland
Vincent is a suburb of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It is a mostly residential suburb and borders Pimlico, Heatley, Gulliver and Aitkenvale.-External links:*...
, Heatley, Mount Louisa, Kirwan
Kirwan, Queensland
Kirwan is a suburb of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Kirwan includes parks, shopping, Kirwan State High School and private schools as well as the Riverway complex which has a great deal of entertainment from swimming, BBQ's and family outings to cultural events including an art gallery and...
and Condon
Condon, Queensland
Condon is a suburb in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Condon is part of the Upper Ross District and is the first of three suburbs along Riverway Drive. Condon's first residential development was in 1968; it was named after the Condon family who had settled on the Ross River and had a dairy...
. This growing complex of airfields brought about a change of name; the base had originally been known as RAAF Townsville in 1939, but the construction of Aitkenvale and Stockroute in 1942 made this designation potentially confusing. The original base was now renamed RAAF Garbutt, the name of the local railway station, to distinguish it from the other airfields in the near vicinity. (Garbutt railway siding had a cattle ramp and yards and was named after its biggest customer, Garbutt Brothers, wholesale butchers.)
In the course of the later war years 1942-45, a large number of RAAF units passed through the Garbutt-Stockroute complex: No. 33 Squadron
No. 33 Squadron RAAF
No. 33 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force transport squadron. It was formed in 1942 for service during World War II. Following the completion of hostilities the squadron was disbanded in 1946. In 1981 the squadron was re-raised as a flight-sized organisation before being expanded to a full...
(Empire flying boats
Short Empire
The Short Empire was a passenger and mail carrying flying boat, of the 1930s and 1940s, that flew between Britain and British colonies in Africa, Asia and Australia...
) in 1942, No. 40 Squadron
No. 40 Squadron RAAF
No. 40 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force transport squadron of World War II. It was formed in March 1944 and operated flying boats between Australia and New Guinea. The squadron was disbanded in June 1946.-Squadron history:...
(Sunderlands
Short Sunderland
The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers. It took its service name from the town and port of Sunderland in northeast England....
and Catalinas
PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...
) in 1944, No. 41 Squadron
No. 41 Squadron RAAF
No. 41 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force transport squadron of World War II. It was formed in August 1942 and operated flying boats in the South West Pacific area. The squadron was disbanded in September 1945.-Squadron history:...
(Mariners
PBM Mariner
The Martin PBM Mariner was a patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the PBY Catalina in service. A total of 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940.-Design and...
) in 1942-44, No. 75 Squadron
No. 75 Squadron RAAF
No. 75 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force fighter unit based at RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory. The squadron was formed in 1942 and saw extensive action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, operating P-40 Kittyhawks. It was disbanded in 1948, but reformed the...
(Kittyhawks
Curtiss P-40
The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was an American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational...
) in 1942, and No. 86 Squadron (Kittyhawks) in 1943. Many USAAF units were also based at the complex. In the surrounding area, No. 7 Squadron
No. 7 Squadron RAAF
No. 7 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force flying training squadron of World War I and medium bomber squadron of World War II. The Squadron was first formed in October 1917 and was disbanded in December 1945 after seeing action during the Pacific War....
(Beauforts
Bristol Beaufort
The Bristol Beaufort was a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber....
) was based at Ross River in 1942-44, No. 8 Squadron
No. 8 Squadron RAAF
No. 8 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force flying training squadron of World War I and medium bomber squadron of World War II. The Squadron was first formed in October 1917 and was disbanded in January 1946 after seeing action during the Pacific War....
(Beauforts) was based at Bohle River in 1943, No. 30 Squadron
No. 30 Squadron RAAF
No. 30 Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force . Raised in 1942 as a fighter unit, the Squadron saw action in the Second World War and later served in the target towing and surface-to-air missile roles. After a long period of disbandment lasting from the late 1960s, No...
(Beaufighters
Bristol Beaufighter
The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the Beau, was a British long-range heavy fighter modification of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber design...
) was based at Bohle River in 1942, No. 76 Squadron
No. 76 Squadron RAAF
No. 76 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force flight training squadron. Established in 1942, the squadron operated P-40 Kittyhawk fighter aircraft and saw combat during World War II. Following the war it formed part of Australia's contribution to the occupation of Japan until it was...
(Kittyhawks) was based at Weir in 1942, No. 80 Squadron (Kittyhawks) was based at Weir in 1943-44, No. 82 and No. 84 Squadrons
No. 84 Squadron RAAF
No. 84 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force fighter squadron of World War II.-History:No. 84 Squadron was formed at RAAF Base Richmond on 5 February 1943 and was the first RAAF Squadron to be equipped with the Australian-designed Boomerang fighter. In April 1943 No...
(Kittyhawks) were based at Weir in 1944, No. 86 Squadron (Kittyhawks) was based at Bohle River in 1944, and No. 5 Repair and Service Unit was based at Bohle River in 1944.
RAAF Townsville was a dry, dusty place for much of the time. Wartime aerial photographs show not a single tree or patch of lawn on the base. The storm drains on the flat ground were often inadequate for runoff, and the runways sometimes flooded during tropical downpours. Engineering contractors were constantly at work improving the base's drainage. Even at the height of the wartime emergency, civilian access to the base seems to have been relatively unrestricted. A 1944 plan of RAAF Garbutt shows that, although there was a main entrance past the guardhouse
Guardhouse
A guardhouse is a building used to house personnel and security equipment...
, there were also other driveways off Ingham Road into the Officers' Mess, and the unfenced road to the civil aviation area ran past the Sergeants Accommodation Blocks. Contractors and suppliers came and went every day. Local people continued to collect firewood and swim in the waterholes
Depression (geology)
A depression in geology is a landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding area. Depressions may be formed by various mechanisms.Structural or tectonic related:...
on the Town Common. Civilians were often invited to mess nights and regularly attended movies and dances in the base Gymnasium.
Garbutt's fighter aircraft briefly played a role in the defence of Australian territory. On three occasions in late July 1942, Townsville was bombed late at night by long-range Japanese flying boats based in Rabaul. These attacks accompanied a general increase in Japanese submarine attacks on shipping along the east coast of Australia, and were probably diversionary in purpose, for they coincided with the Japanese infantry landings at Gona
Battle of Buna-Gona
The Battle of Buna–Gona was a battle in the New Guinea campaign, a major part of the Pacific campaign of World War II. On 16 November 1942, Australian and United States forces attacked the main Japanese beachheads in New Guinea, at Buna, Sanananda and Gona. Both forces were riddled by disease and...
on the north coast of Papua. All three events were minor nuisance raids and completely ineffectual, with no injuries or significant damage. In the early morning of 28 July a stick of bombs, possibly aimed from high altitude at the general vicinity of the airfield, landed at the northern end of the Town Common near the Many Peaks Range, over 4 km from the nearest buildings at RAAF Garbutt. The heavy anti-aircraft battery on Mount St John, west of Garbutt airfield, went into action, and on the second and third occasions, USAAF P-39 Airacobra fighters from Garbutt base also pursued the bombers. On 29 July a P-39 inflicted damage on the departing Japanese aircraft. Perhaps because of this increasingly spirited opposition, that was the last bombing raid on Townsville.
War in the Pacific - Offensive Phase
The threat to northern Australia had diminished by the second half of 1942, because the strategic initiative in the Pacific had been regained by the Allied sideAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. The Japanese navy had experienced two decisive defeats, first in the Coral Sea in May, and then at the Midway Islands
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
in June, seriously damaging Japan’s naval air power, which had been the key to its early victories. From mid-1942 onward, the role of the Townsville bases was no longer the defence of Australia, but logistical support
Logistics Support Area
In the United States Army, a Logistics Support Area is a military term which refers to military facilities which act as depot, barracks, and transportation hubs, providing supplies and personnel to facilities closer to or within arenas of armed conflict...
for the Allied offensive into Japanese-held territory.
An event in September 1942, eight weeks after the last bombing raid on Townsville, showed that the threat had diminished. Tunnels were being dug under the Garbutt runways so that demolition charges could be laid to prevent an invading enemy capturing the airfield in a usable condition. On 22 September the Allied Works Council ordered work on the demolition tunnels to stop, signalling that there was no longer considered to be a threat of invasion of the Australian mainland.
As the war advanced, and operations moved progressively northwards into the Pacific, so Townsville's complex of airfields were gradually turned into a huge rear echelon workshop. The fighter defence function ceased in 1942, and the bomber function lessened during 1943 as the Japanese were progressively defeated in New Guinea and the Solomons. By January 1944 the bomber squadrons had moved on to Rabaul and other bases, and Townsville became the headquarters of USAAF V Air Service Command and RAAF No. 15 Aircraft Repair Depot. The official history of the USAAF gives an indication of the range of technical work carried out there during the last two years of the war:
Machining
Conventional machining is a form of subtractive manufacturing, in which a collection of material-working processes utilizing power-driven machine tools, such as saws, lathes, milling machines, and drill presses, are used with a sharp cutting tool to physical remove material to achieve a desired...
at Townsville produced, among other things, special propeller tools, a jig-filing machine, an indicating apparatus for hollow-steel propellers, and an electric arc welder for high-melting point soldering on armatures. ... By September 1943, the Townsville depot had converted some 175 B-25C's
B-25 Mitchell
The North American B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium bomber manufactured by North American Aviation. It was used by many Allied air forces, in every theater of World War II, as well as many other air forces after the war ended, and saw service across four decades.The B-25 was named...
and D's for low-level strafing, and then turned to the B-25G. Between November and the following April, it would add on eighty-two planes two additional .50-cal. machine guns in the nose, two more in the gun tunnel, and a stinger of twin .30's in the tail - modifications requiring 234 man-hours per plane.
In a rationalisation of the joint Australian-American command structure, control of the Garbutt base was taken over by the USAAF in June 1943. Construction and maintenance were handed back to the RAAF in October 1943, but the USAAF remained in control of operations until April 1945. At the close of the war, Garbutt's RAAF fighter squadron (No. 84
No. 84 Squadron RAAF
No. 84 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force fighter squadron of World War II.-History:No. 84 Squadron was formed at RAAF Base Richmond on 5 February 1943 and was the first RAAF Squadron to be equipped with the Australian-designed Boomerang fighter. In April 1943 No...
) was in the course of conversion to P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
fighters. For some time after the war ended, 84 and 86 squadrons were based in the Townsville area before joining the British Commonwealth Occupation Force
British Commonwealth Occupation Force
The British Commonwealth Occupation Force , was the name of the joint Australian, Canadian, British, Indian and New Zealand military forces in occupied Japan, from 21 February 1946 until the end of occupation in 1952...
in Japan.
The Post-War era
When hostilities ceasedEnd of World War II in the Pacific
The end of World War II in Asia occurred on 14/15 August 1945 when armed forces of the Japanese nation surrendered to the forces of the United Nations...
in August 1945, operations rapidly wound down throughout the Townsville military aviation complex, and buildings were being dismantled and sold at auction in the following months. RAAF Garbutt had always been intended as a permanent base, and after the war it shrank back to the size of the base originally planned in 1939 and constructed by late 1940. Some wartime hangars remained in service, and at least one Butler hangar was relocated to the eastern perimeter of Garbutt after Stockroute closed. A large "igloo" or vaulted hangar was erected beside it. No. 11 Squadron
No. 11 Squadron RAAF
No. 11 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force maritime patrol squadron based at RAAF Base Edinburgh. It was formed in 1939 and has seen active service in World War II, East Timor, the War on Terrorism and the 2003 Gulf War...
briefly operated Catalinas from Townsville in 1948-49, then in 1949 Garbutt became the base for No.10 Reconnaissance Squadron
No. 10 Squadron RAAF
No. 10 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force maritime patrol squadron based at RAAF Base Edinburgh. The Squadron was first formed in 1939 and has seen active service in World War II, East Timor, the War on Terrorism and the 2003 Gulf War.-Second World War:...
, which operated Avro Lincoln
Avro Lincoln
The Avro Type 694, better known as the Avro Lincoln, was a British four-engined heavy bomber, which first flew on 9 June 1944. Developed from the Avro Lancaster, the first Lincoln variants were known initially as the Lancaster IV and V, but were renamed Lincoln I and II...
s from the field on long-range maritime reconnaissance patrols, with one aircraft usually detached to Darwin.
With the other airfields in the Townsville suburbs closed, the name of the base reverted to its early form of RAAF Townsville in 1951. The Lincolns required a longer runway, and in 1952 further land to the north was acquired from the Town Common to extend the north-south runway. In March 1956 tropical cyclone
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...
Agnes struck Townsville, damaging buildings at the RAAF base. The Lincoln aircraft were hangared in the two large wartime hangars during the storm, but this was not adequate: the vaulted hangar was damaged, and subsequently had to be demolished. A Lincoln was destroyed and another severely damaged in the hangar failure. Since this experience, aircraft have been flown out of Townsville during tropical cyclones. In 1962, the Lincolns were replaced by Lockheed P2V-7 Neptunes
P-2 Neptune
The Lockheed P-2 Neptune was a Maritime patrol and ASW aircraft. It was developed for the United States Navy by Lockheed to replace the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon, and being replaced in turn with the Lockheed P-3 Orion...
.
Control tower
A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...
on Hangar 75 functioned until 1960, when it was replaced by the present brick control tower. Major damage was done to the civil terminal by the even more severe Cyclone Althea in 1971, and there was also some damage to the RAAF base. Learning from the 1956 experience, the Neptune aircraft had been flown out. An international terminal was built in 1981, and in 1987 a new domestic terminal replaced the last of the 1942 hangars. In 1990 the Federal Airports Corporation
Federal Airports Corporation
The Federal Airports Corporation was a business enterprise of the Government of Australia responsible for the operation of major passenger airports in Australia. At the beginning of 1997 the corporation operated 22 airports and handled over 60 million passenger annually.It was established by an...
acquired the piece of RAAF land occupied by the domestic and international terminals.
The role of RAAF Base Townsville changed in the 1960s and 70s with the general northward shift of Australia's defence bases. In 1960 the majority of Australia's armed forces were still based near the southern capital cities, as they had been since the 1880s, but experience in Malaya
Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960....
, Sarawak
Communist Insurgency War
The Communist Insurgency War, or Second Malaysian Emergency was an insurgency and guerrilla war, conducted by the Malayan Communist Party against Malaysian armed forces from 1968 to 1989.-Origins:...
and Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
changed the emphasis of defence policy to preparedness for limited regional conflicts. The level of military aviation activity at Townsville began to increase after the establishment in 1966 of Lavarack Barracks
Lavarack Barracks
Lavarack Barracks is a major Australian Army base located in Townsville, Queensland. Lavarack Barracks is currently home to the Army's 3rd Brigade and 11th Brigade. Elements of the 3rd Brigade based at the Barracks include the Combat Signals Regiment, 3rd Combat Services Support Battalion and the...
, which steadily grew to become Australia's largest Army base, and the Headquarters of the Third Task Force. In 1976, No. 35 Squadron
No. 35 Squadron RAAF
No. 35 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force transport unit. First formed in 1942, No. 35 Squadron saw action in World War II and the Vietnam War.-History:...
was based at Townsville in support of Army operations. However, the following year No. 10 Squadron was relocated to RAAF Base Edinburgh
RAAF Base Edinburgh
RAAF Base Edinburgh is located in Edinburgh, 25km north of the centre of Adelaide.It is primarily home to No 92 Wing's AP-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft that conduct surveillance operations throughout Australia's airspace....
in South Australia, and over thirty years of maritime reconnaissance operations from Townsville ceased.
De Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou
The de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou is a Canadian-designed and produced specialized cargo aircraft with short takeoff and landing capability...
and Iroquois helicopters
UH-1 Iroquois
The Bell UH-1 Iroquois is a military helicopter powered by a single, turboshaft engine, with a two-bladed main rotor and tail rotor. The helicopter was developed by Bell Helicopter to meet the United States Army's requirement for a medical evacuation and utility helicopter in 1952, and first flew...
in support of the Australian Army, but has now been disbanded and incorporated into No. 38 Squadron
No. 38 Squadron RAAF
No. 38 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force transport squadron. The Squadron was formed in 1943 and saw active service in the Second World War, Korean War and Malayan Emergency. No. 38 Squadron has also supported Australian peacekeeping operations around the world including in Kashmir and East...
, performing the same role. In 1989 No. 9 Squadron
No. 9 Squadron RAAF
No. 9 Squadron was a unit of the Royal Australian Air Force. The Squadron saw active service in World War II and the Vietnam War before being disbanded in 1989.-Fleet co-operation:...
with Black Hawk helicopters was briefly based at RAAF Townsville, before handing over its aircraft to the Australian Army and disbanding, as part of a new policy of placing battlefield helicopters under Army command. The Army occupied dedicated facilities at RAAF Base Townsville, and the 5th Aviation Regiment now operates Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters
CH-47 Chinook
The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 170 knots is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s...
from a complex in the south-west corner of the base.
Changes in operational requirements from the 1960s to the 1990s and improvements in technologies such as telecommunications have greatly expanded the physical requirements of RAAF Townsville. New administrative buildings. workshops and accommodation blocks have been added in a series of changes over the last three decades. The most recent developments in 2000-2001 have seen the expansion of operational infrastructure with the provision of Fighter/Strike and Maritime Patrol Ordnance Loading Aprons
Airport ramp
The airport ramp or apron is part of an airport. It is usually the area where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled or boarded. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on vehicles, it is typically more accessible to users than the runway or taxiway...
, new taxiways and a Fighter/Strike Operational and Technical Support Facility. While Fighter, Strike and Maritime Patrol aircraft are not currently based at Townsville, these facilities are in keeping with current Australian Defence practice of creating "bare bases
RAAF Bare Bases
The Royal Australian Air Force currently maintains three Bare Bases in remote areas of Northern Australia. These bases were developed in the 1980s and 1990s in line with the Defence of Australia Policy in order to enhance the RAAF's ability to conduct combat operations from the Australian mainland...
" which are ready to receive operational aircraft at short notice.
A RAAF museum is located on base.
See also
- United States Army Air Forces in AustraliaUnited States Army Air Forces in AustraliaDuring World War II, the United States Army Air Forces established a series of airfields in Australia for the collective defense of the country, as well as for conducting offensive operations against the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy...
(World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
)
- Townsville Airport