View Full Version : What happened to the Whittlesea Airstrip?
ibaker
10th Jul 2006, 04:35
Just wondering whether anyone here knows what ever happened to the airstrip and flying school that was out at Whittlesea - a real outer suburb of Melbourne? Is the strip still there - is it being used - has it been gobbled up for housing???
StickWithTheTruth
10th Jul 2006, 06:32
I heard that there were too many little ultralights operating out of there making too much noise and upsetting the neighbours with their buzzing 2-strokes and non-stop engineouts. Same thing was happening at Lilydale, but there instead they shut the doors on them.
vee1-rotate
10th Jul 2006, 10:58
I ventured out for a look a few years back. Be warned, it is on private property (though it doesn't look like it as it is next to a main road with no evidence of it being part of someones property)..the owner is extremely agressive if you venture out to have a look.
The flying school buildings are still there, barely though...they are crumbling and falling apart. There are also relics still inside the building, including old whiteboards with rego's on them and flying log books in an old shed out the back.
PM me if you want some more info.
compressor stall
11th Jul 2006, 06:25
got a lat long or a melways ref for it - Google earth has recently dumped some more high res stuff around melbourne (particuarly eastern suburbs). It might be there on hi res
vee1-rotate
11th Jul 2006, 08:22
Found it in Google Earth...
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h51/dan_69/whittlesea1Large.jpg
you can see the flying school buildings so I'm assuming they are still standing...they are towards the bottom left of the picture...
the big main building is the flying school building, and the structure just above and to the left of it is a big shed, which has (had) a heap of old logbooks that I described before. Quite a fascinating place.
The runway's can't be seen, but I'm pretty sure they would have existed in the big greyed out area in the picture. When I was there a few years back, the runway structure could be seen...
ibaker, will PM you in a tic
Howard Hughes
11th Jul 2006, 09:12
I soloed there in 1982 so that photo brings back a lot of memories. I can still imagine coming in across the road to land on 35, of course it was still dirt back in 'my day'...
Cheers, HH.:ok:
ibaker
12th Jul 2006, 03:19
Thanks guys for your help - It's a pity that it no longer exists and I would be interested to find out why it closed if anyone does know - thanks again
I want to suggest that we make an effort to rescue any relics/records from this closed airfield. My wife has contacts in Whittlesea. I am prepared to approach the land owner through locals and suggest he give permission for me to take a set of digital pics of the remaining buildings; their interiors and to retrieve any documents, log books etc for safe keeping.
Can someone give me a specific MELWAYS reference for this location or a LAT/LONG so I can follow this up. I would be happy to share material with past pilots from this airfield and fellow ppruners.:)
vee1-rotate
12th Jul 2006, 08:55
pall, the lat/long is displayed in the google earth picture above...will get you a melways ref. soon...
out of interest, i happened to salvage a few things from the airfield the day I was there, will share some pics soon with everyone...
Enema Bandit's Dad
12th Jul 2006, 10:09
With the owners permission of course.
My contacts state the airfield owner (initials MC) removed everything about 5 years ago. If this is so then my mission will be fruitless.:confused:
Mr. Boeing
13th Jul 2006, 05:18
The Whittlesea Historical Society may also have some information .
uncle8
13th Jul 2006, 11:37
The runway used to be north/south in the grey area.
The Google picture is a little out of date.
There is now an open drain where the runway used to be. It is used to convey treated sewerage from the Whittlesea sewerage farm to a large dam south of the old airstrip. The water is used on the Growling Frog golf course.