Hughes is an outer rural locality of Darwin, located approximately south-west of the city in the

Litchfield Municipality The Litchfield Council is a local government area of the Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of ...

. The name of the locality derived from

Hughes Airfield Hughes Airfield (32 Mile) is an airfield in the Northern Territory of Australia located in the locality of Hughes. It was constructed during World War II for military use. The airfield now functions as a base for aerial firefighting aircraft t ...

constructed in the area during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The airfield itself was named after W A Hughes, Director of Mines in the Northern Territory before the war. The airfield is still in occasional use, occupying much of the western half of the locality adjacent to the

Stuart Highway Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; it has a distance of . Its northern and souther ...

. The eastern portion of Hughes, north of Townend Road is characterised by mostly small farms and

rural residential A hobby farm (also called a lifestyle block, acreage living, or rural residential) is a smallholding or small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income. Some are held simply to bring homeowners closer to n ...

development. In 2021, Hughes Airfield received a

Federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

grant of $600,000 to re-seal the runway, reflecting its role in support of

aerial firefighting Aerial firefighting, also known as waterbombing, is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to Wildfire suppression, combat wildfires. The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Smokejumpers and rappellers ar ...

operations during the bushfire season.

References

Suburbs of Darwin, Northern Territory {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub