The Qantas Huts are heritage-listed former accommodation huts at Sydney Highway,

West Island The West Island () is the unofficial name given to the cities, towns and boroughs at the western end of the Island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada. It is generally considered to consist of the Lakeshore municipalities of Dorval, Pointe-Cla ...

, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australia. They were added to the

Australian Commonwealth Heritage List The Commonwealth Heritage List is a heritage register established in 2003, which lists places under the control of the Australian government, on land or in waters directly owned by the Crown (in Australia, the Crown in right of the Commonwealth ...

on 22 June 2004.

History

By 1951, the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

assumed control of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and in the same year, amid disputes with the

Clunies-Ross family The Clunies-Ross family were the original settlers of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a small archipelago in the Indian Ocean. From 1827 to 1978, the family ruled the previously uninhabited islands as a private fiefdom, initially as ''terra nullius'' ...

over the management of the Islands, the family sold to the Australian Government for the construction of an airfield. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

air travel between Australia and Asia was difficult because there were few planes which could fly between Australia and

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

without stopping for fuel. In 1939, Captain Taylor demonstrated that Catalina flying boats were able to cross the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

as long as there were stops for refuelling. During World War II the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

squadron was formed in Ceylon. They made 824 secret journeys between the Indian Ocean and Perth, transporting personnel, official mail and patrolling the Ocean, with a non-stop flying time of 28 hours. These planes refuelled at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands when they had larger pay loads. In the 1940s,

Qantas Empire Airways Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

maintained five Catalinas and flew to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands infrequently. The airstrip was upgraded after 1952 with capacity for the landing and take-off of Qantas Constellations and Stratocruisers. Qantas and later the

South African Airways South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier airline of South Africa. Founded in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and operated a hub-and-spoke network, serving ten destin ...

used the Islands as a transit stop between Perth and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The Cocos (Keeling) Islands became an Australian external territory in 1955. During the 1960s

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

declared its airspace "out of bounds" and thousands of aircraft passengers on route from Australia to South Africa stayed on West Island. The Qantas Huts provided passengers with accommodation while the larger aeroplanes were refuelled overnight.

Description

The Qantas Huts are located on Sydney Highway near the intersection with Clunies Ross Avenue in the West Island Settlement. They consist of two asbestos cement clad accommodation buildings which are timber framed and elevated on concrete stumps with verandahs to the north. These comprise six rooms within each block. In 1996 the buildings were considered to be in fair condition. In 2000 it was noted that a

verandah A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

had been added as well as solid double doors. The double doors are timber and are considered to be inappropriate to the style of the house.

Heritage listing

The Former Qantas Huts are significant as evidence of the era in Australian aviation history where aeroplane services between Perth and Johannesburg, South Africa, required a refuelling stop at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands because of the long flying time over the Indian Ocean. Accommodation was provided for passengers in the form of huts. The Former Qantas Huts are also associated with the period in the 1960s when the Indonesian Government declared its airspace "out of bounds" to the Australian aviation industry, forcing Australian commercial and military aircraft to refuel at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on the route to South Africa. The Former Qantas Huts are rare examples of short term accommodation provided for travellers during aircraft refuelling on international flights over the Indian Ocean in the 1960s.

References

Bibliography

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Attribution

{{AHD-CC, name=Qantas Huts (former), fileNo=9/04/001/0009, id=105354, year=2019, accessdate=15 May 2019 Commonwealth Heritage List places in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands West Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands Buildings and structures in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Huts in Australia Articles incorporating text from the Australian Heritage Database Buildings and structures completed in the 1960s 1960s establishments in Australia Qantas