RAAF Base Learmonth, also known as Learmonth Airport , is a joint use
Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
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, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
base and
civil airport. It is located near the town of
Exmouth
Exmouth is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe and southeast of Exeter.
In 2011 it had a population of 34,432, making Exmouth the 5th most populous settlement in Devon.
Histo ...
on the north-west coast of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. RAAF Base Learmonth is one of the RAAF's three
bare bases. No RAAF units are currently based at Learmonth and it is maintained by a small caretaker staff during peacetime.
The RAAF also operates the Learmonth Air Weapons Range which covers about and is located south-west of the airbase.
History
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 opposing ...
a little-known landing field was constructed on the western shore of
Exmouth Gulf. It was code-named "Potshot" and maintained by No. 76 Operational Base Unit, in support of
Operation Potshot. In the 1950s the landing field was further developed as a military base and named RAAF Learmonth in honour of Wing Commander
Charles Learmonth DFC and Bar, who, while leading
No. 14 Squadron, was killed in a flying accident off
Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island ( nys, Wadjemup), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, Rottnest is an A-class ...
, Western Australia on 6 January 1944.
Starting in June 1944,
Qantas
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 founde ...
used Learmonth as an intermediate stop for two converted
Consolidated Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models de ...
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...
s that flew a segment of the vital
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
–Australia air route, supplementing modified
Consolidated PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wi ...
s flying
The Double Sunrise route to
Ceylon. The Liberators flew a shorter over-water route from Learmonth to an airfield northeast of
Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...
, and could make the journey in 17 hours with of payload, whereas the Catalinas usually required at least 27 hours and had to carry so much auxiliary fuel that their payload was limited to only . The route was named ''
Kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
Service'' and marked the first time that Qantas's now-famous kangaroo logo was used; passengers received a certificate proclaiming them as members of ''The Order of the Longest Hop''.
Qantas would again use the base, much later, during the emergency landing of
Qantas Flight 72
Qantas Flight 72 (QF72) was a scheduled flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Perth Airport by an Airbus A330. On 7 October 2008, the flight made an emergency landing at Learmonth Airport near the town of Exmouth, Western Australia following ...
.
In the mid-1960s, the Federal Government gave its support to plans by the
Chief of the Air Staff,
Air Marshal Val Hancock, to redevelop Learmonth as a bare base, due to its proximity to
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 ...
. Though
F-111Cs could have made a round-trip to Indonesia's capital,
Jakarta, from
RAAF Base Darwin, the route they took would have been very much limited by range. Learmonth's relative proximity added flexibility to the routes in and out, enhancing the likelihood of a successful strike.
The major work was undertaken by
No. 5 Airfield Construction Squadron between 1971 and 1973.
See also
*
List of airports in Western Australia
*
List of Royal Australian Air Force installations
References
External links
RAAF Base Learmontha
airforce.gov.auat RAAF Museum
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Learmonth
Royal Australian Air Force bases
Airports in Western Australia
Shire of Exmouth
Military installations in Western Australia
Military installations established in the 1950s
1950s establishments in Australia
Commonwealth Heritage List places in Western Australia