Toowoomba City Aerodrome is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located northwest from the CBD of

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. Toowoomba City Aerodrome is both licensed and certified. The aerodrome is owned and operated by

Toowoomba Regional Council The Toowoomba Region is a local government area located in the Darling Downs part of Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by several previous local government areas with histories extending back to the early 1900s and bey ...

. Being certified means the airfield is able to have airlines and larger charter aircraft operate from the aerodrome. Being licensed means that the aerodrome is regulated by federal transport security regulations. Toowoomba City Aerodrome does not have a control tower; however the airfield is regulated and operated under Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulations of aviation operations at non-tower controlled aerodromes. Until 2015, it was called Toowoomba Aerodrome.

History

Toowoomba was once a port of call on a Qantas International Airline Service and a

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 ...

flight between

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

and Toowoomba was the first unsubsidized passenger service in Australia. This regular daily service commenced on 9 May 1928 with a

de Havilland DH.50 The de Havilland DH.50 was a 1920s British large single-engined biplane transport built by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware, and licence-built in Australia, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. History In the early 1920s, Geoffrey de Havi ...

. Several notable people have landed in Toowoomba.

Bert Hinkler Herbert John Louis Hinkler (8 December 1892 – 7 January 1933), better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "Australian Lone Eagle") and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person ...

, born in Bundaberg, Queensland, was another pioneer aviator. In 1928, he flew the first solo flight from England to Australia, for this achievement he flew his

Avro Avian The Avro Avian was a series of British light aircraft designed and built by Avro in the 1920s and 1930s. While the various versions of the Avian were sound aircraft, they were comprehensively outsold by the de Havilland Moth and its descendant ...

G-EBOV. It was on that Hinkler landed in Toowoomba at the Clifford Park racecourse flying G-EBOV. On , the first woman to fly from England to Australia,

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records du ...

, landed at what was then known as the Werrington Park Aerodrome or the Wilsonton Aerodrome. In August 1932, Sir

Charles Kingsford Smith Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand. Kingsford Smith was b ...

, a pioneer Australian aviator, landed at Toowoomba in his

Fokker Trimotor The Fokker F.VII, also known as the Fokker Trimotor, was an airliner produced in the 1920s by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker, Fokker's American subsidiary Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, and other companies under licence. Design and dev ...

named the '

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for ...

'. It was in this plane that he made the first non-stop flight across the

Australian continent The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul (), Australia-New Guinea, Australinea, Meganesia, or Papualand to distinguish it from the country of Australia, is located within the Southern and East ...

and the first flight across the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...

to New Zealand. Between 1939 and 1945, the airfield was used at various times by Defence Assets with the cooperation of its owner, Mr. Rankin. In January 1944, the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

's (RAAF) Directorate of Works and Building (DWB) prepared the airfield for a flight of No 5 Army Co-op Squadron in its move to Toowoomba. The unit was quartered and its

CAC Wirraway The CAC Wirraway (an Aboriginal word meaning "challenge") was a training and general purpose military aircraft manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) between 1939 and 1946. It was an Australian development of ...

s were dispersed in trees across the Western Highway some north of the

Wilsonton Wilsonton is an urban locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_n ...

Post Office, and north of the present runway location. In June 1946, the Darling Downs Aero Club was formed on the grass paddock at Wilsonton by a small yet eager group of pilots. Initially, it operated only on the weekends (out of a borrowed tent), and flying training was conducted for and on behalf of the club by the Royal Queensland Aero Club ( Archerfield). Toowoomba City Aerodrome has been subject to much debate from the 1960s to present, with conjecture centred on development of the existing site versus a new green-field development. In the 1960s the Mayor of Toowoomba, Jack McCafferty, expressed interest in upgrading the airport and extending the runway; however these proposals were met with opposition from within the council. In the intervening years, several developments near the airport boundary were allowed, effectively confining the airport and limiting expansion options. Development was spurred on by Council business surveys conducted in 2009 that suggested there was sufficient traffic to sustain both direct Brisbane and Sydney flights. In 2010, the

Toowoomba Region The Toowoomba Region is a local government area located in the Darling Downs part of Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by several previous local government areas with histories extending back to the early 1900s and bey ...

secured funding from the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...

allowing a ( as of ) expansion of the Wilsonton site. The works involved an extension of the main runway to the east, within the confines of the existing airport boundaries. Additional ramp space was provided for passenger aircraft parking; however the terminal was building itself was not renovated or updated. Earthworks were completed by July 2011, but unfavourable weather delayed surfacing works. The commencement of

Skytrans Skytrans is an Australian owned and operated airline and air charter business based in Cairns. The airline operates RPT and charter services from Cairns, Horn Island, and Brisbane. After being placed in administration in January 2015, Skytrans ...

Dash-8 services from Brisbane to Western Queensland via Toowoomba demonstrated that regional turbo-prop aircraft could operate from the airport with a low noise footprint. In July 2011, local media reported that Skytrans was interested in expanding its network to include Toowoomba to Sydney services, while Council suggested that there may a case for direct flights to regional centres such as

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, Moree or

Charleville Charleville can refer to: Australia * Charleville, Queensland, a town in Australia **Charleville railway station, Queensland France * Charleville, Marne, a commune in Marne, France *Charleville-Mézières, a commune in Ardennes, France ** ...

. In the same month, the Queensland Government released a statewide infrastructure review. This identied the need for a larger airport with a runway capable of handling commercial jets to support regional development in the Toowoomba,

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was general ...

and

Surat Basin The Surat Basin is a geological basin in eastern Australia. It is part of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin of Australia. The Surat Basin extends across an area of 270,000 square kilometres and the southern third of the basin occupies a lar ...

regions. Despite a number of green field sites to the south and south west of Toowoomba having been considered, the expense of building such a facility was beyond the means of the Toowoomba Region and would require investment by Federal or State Government. The Army Aviation Centre in nearby Oakey was also considered unsuitable due to the volume of military traffic and conflicts between training areas and approach and departure paths required for large jets. In addition, significant investment would be required to improve road access to Toowoomba and supporting infrastructure at Oakey Airport. Following the opening of the privately funded

Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport is an airport in Wellcamp, west from the CBD of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It was known as Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport until November 2017. The airport and an associated aviation and business park is the ...

, regional services operated under contract to the Queensland Government were transferred to Wellcamp on . This left Toowoomba City Aerodrome without any regular passenger services. No scheduled services currently operate from Toowoomba City Aerodrome.

Category and frequencies

* CTAF(R) 127.65 (Adjacent to Oakey Control Zone) * NDB 386 * AWIS 127.05 * BN CEN 121.2 * PAL 122.4

Other users

Darling Downs Aero Club

Aerotec Queensland
- restoration of Warbirds and historic aircraft * LifeFlight *

Royal Flying Doctor Service The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an air medical service in Australia. It is a non-profit organisation that provides emergency and primary health care services for those living in rural, remote an ...

* Toowoomba City Airport Services

Incidents and accidents

* On , a Beechcraft King Air C90 (registration VH-LQH) operated by Eastland Air on a charter flight to

Goondiwindi Goondiwindi () is a rural town and locality in the Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia. It is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. In the , Goondiwindi had a population of 6,355 people. Geography Goondiwindi is on the MacInt ...

crashed shortly after takeoff from runway 29. It was ultimately determined that the left engine lost power just as, or shortly after, the aircraft became airborne. The pilot continued the take off, however the aircraft could not gain altitude and crashed into a nearby industrial estate. All persons on board (the pilot and three passengers) were killed in the accident. No injuries were reported on the ground. The cause was ultimately determined to be a combination of maintenance and operational issues. The ATSB also noted that the characteristics of the placement and design of runway 29 were a possible contributing factor, due to the limited margin for runway overrun in case of an aborted take off.

References

External links