In the early years of aviation, beach landings were quite common. Evans Head beach was wide and flat with low sandhills and very suitable for pilots to land and take-off. One unfortunate incident in 1934 where, on approach to landing, a wind gust sent a small plane into a tail-spin and crashing into the sandbank, resulting in the death of two passengers and a severely injured pilot. Following the Coronial Inquiry a civil aerodrome was proposed for the flat land beyond to dunes to cater for small planes.
Courtesy of TROVE Northern Star, Wednesday 2 May 1934
After the inquiry into the ‘plane crash at Evans Head, Wing Commander L. J. Wackett, of the R.A.A.F., visited the scene of the accident, accompanied by Mr. Jas Allison (coroner) and Mr. E. D. Armstrong (New England Airways.)
After inspecting the beaches, Wing Commander Wackett was asked if the inspection would alter the opinion already expressed by him in his statement to the coroner. He replied “No.”
A visit was afterwards made to the proposed aerodrome.
The party was shown over the site by the secretary of the Evans Head Ratepayers’ Association.
MARKING GROUND
Wing Commander Wackett expressed the opinion that emergency landings could be made at any time with safety by large aircraft. He suggested as a preliminary, that an area of 20 by 20 yards be cleared, to be marked either by a circle or cross with a radius of 400 yards from the centre, providing safety from high tension wires, and making provision for planes to land from any quarter.
He also suggested that the site be properly marked out, and a request made for the erection of a small building to provide for telephone communication.
Following the outbreak of war, the airfield was upgraded, to become the home to No.1 Bombing and Gunnery School (No.1 BAGS) in 1940, with an armament range established south of the Evans River.
By 1942 the base had expanded to accommodate more than 70 aircraft, the trainees and all the personnel required to maintain it, including a contingent of WAAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force). The airfield now had 4 intersecting runways with with the main aeroplanes being the Fairey Battle, Gipsy Moth, Ryan, Avro Anson and Wackett Trainers and other aircraft visiting for practice from RAAF Amberley base in Queensland.
Altogether 5,500 men and women trained in the Empire Air Training Scheme at Evans Head before leaving for theatres of war in Europe and the Pacific.
The base was also used by the No.52 Anti-Submarine Squadron with a wharf being established on the river.
By early December 1943, No.1 BAGS had supplied sufficient training for the war effort, and it was disbanded. The base continued operations, with the transfer from Cootamundra of the No.1 Air Observers School (AOS) in December 1943.
The school operated for the next two years with flight operations increasing and troop movements escalating. Over the 4 years of flight training, several mishaps occurred which resulted in a handful of service personnel being killed before they made it to the theatre of war. They are buried at the Evans Head War Cemetery.
In August 1945, the base was passed into the hands of the Care and Maintenance Unit, who had responsibility for maintenance and control of Evans Head aerodrome until 1947 when it was transferred to the Department of Civil Aviation.
The ownership of the aerodrome passed through many hands with lots of ideas about how to utilise the space.
One of the original RAAF hangars is currently being used by the Evans Head Aviation Museum which houses a F-1-11 amongst other memorabilia.
WAAAF Stories
The Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force was formed in 1941 to relieve the men of administrative and non-combative tasks so that they could be released for active duty overseas. Initially working as wireless telegraphists, clerks and cooks, WAAAF servicewomen took on an increasing number and variety of duties, ultimately working in 77 per cent of the available RAAF roles. Over 25,000 women joined up and were sent all over Australia to be trained in aircraft maintenance, truck driving, parachute packing, security, ciphering and many other tasks. At first there was some reluctance from the men to allow women to do manual labour, but upon witnessing how capable and willing they were to “muck in”, their attitudes soon changed.
Initially, eight women were assigned to Evans Head base in the Driver Motor Transport (DMT) section. There was no suitable accommodation on base so they were billeted to a guest house in the village. There was no officer amongst them but they made their own “rules” about male visitors and they bonded quickly as, for many of the young ladies, it was their first experience away from home.
When they’d signed up for DMT they expected to be chauffeuring officers in staff cars or delivering good in utilities. What they found instead was every type of heavy vehicle from Bedford trucks to a “brute” of a Daimler ambulance. They were often towing a gun turret or trailer and ferrying troops out to the bombing range. There were many good-natured practical jokes played on the ladies but they took it in their stride.
A recent publication about women in the Air Force “Changing Altitudes” features one of the Evans Head WAAAFs Audrey “Jean” Philp (later Haughton-James).
Along with one of her colleagues Sheila McGovern (later Manley) they penned a journal “As We Knew It” about their time at 1BAGS.
Post War
Commercial activity began when Butler Air Transport, a major NSW regional airline, commenced services from Sydney, via Coffs Harbour to Evans Head. A bus service ran from the aerodrome and town, via Woodburn and Coraki, to the major regional town of Lismore.
In 1954, crowds turned out to see Queen Elizabeth fly in and out on a quick visit to the Northern Rivers.
In 1959, the flight service was moved to Casino, the aerodrome was largely dormant and most of the buildings were dismantled. Some of the huts were moved across the road to form Camp Koinonia holiday village.
In 1985, a temporary closure of the Casino airport saw an extension to the north-south runway to accommodate commercial flights of Fokker F27 ‘Friendship’ turbo-prop aircraft.
At the conclusion of the second world war in 1945, military equipment and buildings were no longer needed by the Defence force. Most of the military surplus was sold or scrapped if no buyer could be found. Camp Koinonia’s heritage listed accommodation huts were originally 81 ft long buildings built in the early 1940s on the Evans Head Aerodrome used for housing RAAF Servicemen.
In 1953 Dayal Singh, a well known local construction engineer, purchased and removed the 81 ft long buildings. He used what is thought to be the only D8 bulldozer on the north coast to cut a track from the Air Force Base to a gazetted lot 100 m from Air Force Beach, which was owned by the lands department. This land was set aside for Youth Camps and Recreation.
Dayal Singh cleverly dragged these buildings, using his bulldozer, on large logs one by one across the swamp. They were docked into smaller huts and placed on footings. Source
