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19°15′12″S 146°45′54″E  / 19.25333°S 146.76500°E / -19.25333; Its latitude and longitude are: 19°15′12″S 146°45′54″E / 19.25333° North and 146.76500° East. 146.76500

Air Force Base Townsville

RAAF Base Townsville (IATA: TSV, ICAO: YBTL) (formerly RAAF Base Garbutt) is an Australian Air Force (RAAF) air base in Garbutt, 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) west of the Townsville

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And, with Lavarack Barracks, makes Townsville a great military base. The first airport is shared with Townsville Airport.

The symbol of RAAF Base Townsville is the brolga, placed on top of the fort; surrounded by words Royal Australian Air Force; surrounded by a crown; with the motto “Defending the North” on the parchment below.

The airfield at today’s RAAF Base Townsville was first built in the late 1930s for air travel, and was further developed as part of Australia’s military preparations for the future war. Plans were made for an RAAF base before the start of the war in Europe, and the field was fully operational with an operational fighter squadron four months before Japan entered the war. The foundations are still functional and many of the original buildings serve their original purpose nearly 70 years after the original plans were drawn up.

The city of Townsville was created in 1866, but occupied a small area around Castle Hill. The land that is now RAAF Base Townsville became part of the new Thuringowa Division (later the Shire) in 1879, and was first surveyed in the Townsville Survey Division in 1884. In 1918 the boundary changed. -local government land, and the land was included. in the city of Townsville.

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The RAAF site was never privately owned, but remained Crown land until it was acquired by the Commonwealth in the 1940s. The site was considered too low and swampy for housing or other development. , and was submitted in 1868 to be set aside as a common town. . under the auspices of the Townsville City Council for the public. Local people cut down the trees in the bush. In late 1939, when the RAAF first explored the area, much of the land was still dense forest.

The launch of the land tour was also an initiative of the Townsville City Council. Townsville’s first airport was built on an east-west corridor in Thuringowa Shire, on the floodplain south of the Ross River in what is now Murray City. It was used in the 1920s, approved by the Department of Civil Aviation in 1930. The Garbutt site was approved a few years later because it was better than the Ross River site, and provided space for rail and air to their destination. the wind is north-east and south-east. The Townsville City Council undertook construction work on two 730-metre (800 m) stone runways at the new site, and the new airport was authorized on 26 January 1939. on February 1 the air transport operation when the Australian’s Stinson Airline landed. in view of the mayor’s response, even though there was no hangar or oil mine, and no road was built to the airport.

Almost immediately there was a move to place military aircraft in the area. In 1938, the Department of Defense, realizing the possibility of war between Japan and the United States, began to plan to improve the northern part of Quesland, and at the end of January 1939 while the railway was under construction, an RAAF officer traveled to Townsville. to choose the best. military airfield area. The proposal to establish an air force base at Townsville arose as part of a general initiative in 1938-39 to improve defense readiness by building or improving air bases throughout the northern Australia, especially in Darwin and Townsville. The primary function of the base was to provide space for the Townsville fighters, and the initial plans for the base showed three hangars, mainly to house three fighter squadrons. It was reorganized in late 1939, and reduced to a single squadron base, with 140 Civil Air Force personnel and 132 RAAF personnel. the entire RAAF. Darwin was meant to be twice that.

The Commonwealth approached the Townsville City Council to negotiate the acquisition of a new airport in April 1939. Defce hoped that the State would provide the land, but negotiations with the Government and the Council on Purchase Rates and Improvement Allowances. . , and the land had to be purchased by the Commonwealth in December 1940 in exchange for a payment of $2,500 to the Quesland Government. The Commonwealth has entered into an agreement with the Townsville City Council whereby the Council will supply water, sewage and electricity to the camp. According to the agreement between the Commonwealth and the Council, civil aviation operations should continue at the site.

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The impact of World War II on Australia was twofold. Australia was drawn directly into the war with Germany in September 1939 because of British-led foreign policy, and for the next two years Australian troops fought in the European Theatre, and the Mediterranean and Eastern theater. the First World War. It was during this phase that RAAF Townsville was established.

The building plan for RAAF Townsville was drawn up by the Office of the Chief Architect of the Construction Department in the second half of 1939. The hangars and workshops were combined with steel structure, in accordance with the RAF’s modern designs for fighter airfields. . In the early 1940s, while land negotiations were still ongoing, construction began on two gravel runways, hangars, workshops, residences and a mess. The construction of the railway and the basic equipment was completed before the year 1940. The camp was officially established on October 15, 1940.

Where the Townsville Daily Bulletin described the excitement in Townsville the day before when a party of RAAF personnel arrived by train, and marched down Flinders Street, led by the municipal brass band. and Townsville Airport in Garbutt, arrived on Monday morning, and is housed in a beautiful new building on the site of the airport.” The war in Britain was still at a standstill, and for several months the courage of the pilots is full of news.

Over the next few days CA-25 Wirraway fighters from No.24 Squadron were sent to Townsville Airport, later joined by Hudson light bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Newly built at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation’s Maribyrnong factory, the Wirraways were the RAAF’s main fighter, but were heavy, underpowered and underarmed by international standards. The basic type of facilities in the late 1940s consisted of two runways, residences, a mess, a gymnasium, a workshop and a hangar and a control tower, all of which had been completed or were still under construction. In May 1941, RAAF Townsville became the headquarters of RAAF North.

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In the first twelve months there were changes in the basic organization. There were doubts about the Townsville City Council’s ability to maintain the electricity supply in an emergency, so in 1941 an electric building was built on the grounds with electricity running from the diesel. Australia agreed to train pilots under the Empire Air Training Scheme, and a second trainee hostel was built at RAAF Townsville.

Bigger changes were coming. With operations moving toward the war in the Pacific, the United States Air Force (USAAF) began to worry about the security of air routes to return its forces to Clark Field and to locations another in the Philippines. In September 1941, the USAAF reinforced air bases in the Philippines with B-17 heavy bombers, and the Australian War Cabinet secretly accepted requests for airspace at Townsville and Darwin air bases. to develop air defense equipment. USAAF officials arrived in Townsville in October 1941 to plan the expansion of the new airport to accommodate larger aircraft and more traffic than before. The two gravel highways were widened to three closed lanes, and the south-east facing road was widened to 1,500 m to accommodate heavy blasts and bird transport. The expansion took place in six weeks of around-the-clock efforts, and was completed on December 15, 1941. Japan had declared war a week earlier.

In the face of the Japanese threat, the development of a new RAAF base in Townsville over the previous two years was overtaken by a more rapid expansion, with Australian and American troops entering Townsville from January 1942. a few years ago, much was made of the now famous “Brisbane Line” doctrine, based on the feeling that in the evt.