Katherine Aerodrome

[Stationair8]

Talking with a retired Flight Service Officer over the Christmas break, and he would like to know when the Katherine township airport closed and RAAF Tindal was opened? Anyone have an idea of the dates?

[oldrotorhead]

Can't remember the exact dates, but I do recall from my old army aviation days when we were based at RAAF Tindal (only a big strip and no other infrastructure to speak of in those days) in around mid 1976 on Survey Ops, that the FSU was still in operation at the old Katherine aerodrome. If you drive past the Knott's Crossing Resort at Katherine these days you will come across the old Katherine aerodrome still evident but be careful if you take a drive along it because there are some bloody big ditches that have been dug across the old runway to stop mug lairs from speeding down the strip!

[AirSic]

Sounds like experience!?!?!?!:E

[Nards]

Tindal was officially opened in 87 or 88, but was operational for a while before that. I landed and took off from the Katherine airstip in 1999 in a C177RG (the pink and purple one that used to be in Darwin REJ perhaps?), but as stated below you do need to be wary of the ditch. I believe there was only one when I was there and it was about 2/3's of the length?

Also flew into the old strip just west of Tindal on a Mango farm - can't remember the name - but that was also fun, especially with an ALSAV parked smack bang in the middle of the road/runway at the upwind end!

Cheers
Nards

[tinpis]

Oh Bushy would know this one
He was probably there when it was called Catherine.:hmm:
BTW what happened to the statue of John McDouall Stuart that was in the Humbug Mall in Darwhine?

[Crogs]

My memory is fading but I thought that Katherin FS closed just before Cyclone Tracey and then was reopened after the event. Might be wrong though.

[Marauder]

Went into the old Katherine strip in I think 81 in PNN (where is she now) on a Darwin aeroclub fly in DN -Materanka- DN for fuel on the way home. I beleive that TN was operational but Avgas was not.:)

[ResBunny]

And while we're discussing Katherine's various airports. Does anybody know which airport Ansett NT used at Katherine when it was flying the F28 on the centre run? I flew with them from Alice to Ayers Rock in the mid 80's (I think), so I'm guessing that pre-dates Tindal being used as Katherine's airport, therefore the F28's must have gone into the old "town" strip. But would be interested to know for sure.

[tipsy2]

My mate Disco Stu (He's not allowed to post in these hallowed Forums) spent time in '69 crewing a Caribou that was in support of 5 Airfield Construction Squadron building Katherine/Tindal. He doesn't remember much except it was boring and was glad to get back to his regular Unit.

tipsy:ok:

[triadic]

KN FSU closed in the mid 70's along with most FSU's by around 1990. The aerodrome closed in the early 90's as said above. It was certainly not (formally) available in 1983 when all civil movements were at TN.

TN did not become fully (RAAF) operational till around 85 or 86 and the F/A18 Sqn moved there a bit later, maybe 86/87. I remember diverting there in a 727 due wx at DN and it was still uncontrolled - that was about 85.

Memory not that flash these days, but best I can recall.

Those were the days!:ok::ok:

[Richo]

Res Bunny

TN, at that time known as Tindal Aerodrome was used in 82 by the Ansett centre run. It (officialy) became RAAF Tindal in the late 80's with the re-forming of 75SQN (F/A-18) after the move from Darwin. The aerodrome and some very basic infrastruture existed from WWII, when it was first constructed by the USAF. The RAAF later did it up (60's from an earlier post) and it became a joint user aerodrome, but the military infrastructure consisted of a few huts in the bush. The civil terminal has been there since the early 80's. Interesting to note the old terminal building is still at the airport, they just moved it over to the side and Chartair now uses it as its KTN offices.
(Yes I have spent many a night waiting for the Ambulance in the terminal building at KTN reading all the old pictures and history)

The strip just to the west is Manbuloo (the mango farms) it was an old WWII strip that is now on private property. Was once the home of the Katherine Drop Zone and the world famous "Rell Week". Ahh the days of KRH and FRO dropping "semi" naked female FLTLTs now WGCDRs. (or is that now GPCAPT)

The old terminal building still exists at the old TOWN strip, and was the last time I saw it used as a Museum of sorts. Mind you that was two floods ago, and it may now be gone. I have a mate who works in Katherine, and will get his to go and see if there is any info still available at the site.


Richo

[marty1468]

RAAF Tindal became operational with 75 sqn F/A-18's in October 1988 (I was posted there at this time). The base itself was operated by the RAAF from late 1987 in the work up to the F/A-18's arriving. About half of the 75 sqn personnel either arrived in March/April 1988 to prepare and the other half (myself included) arrived in October as the aircraft departed Williamtown in NSW.

[Fox3snapshot]

Let me tell you about Katherine and Tindal.....

Firstly it has and always be ...Katherine! With a K! ;)

Secondly, Tindal Airbase (WWII ish) always existed and was later in the Mirage days the storage facility during the cyclone season (a one stop shop hangar that the fleet was squashed into). The coolest thing was the Mirage boys used to smoke Katherine on their way to Tindal to store the jets for the cyclone season (only the Boo's and Herc's got in after that!!!! :ok:). The military in those days were God and we all wanted to be part of it!

When we shut down our local strip in the township and moved to Tindal, life as we knew it changed.

In the ol days when they (The RAAF) were trying to do the right thing by the locals they started acoustic trials for their new Base :p They smoked Mirages flat chat around/up and down the town with measuring sticks to see how much it would tick the locals off. Truth is it was a new season of The Goodies that week on ABC and nobody cared!! :D But it was cool as a kid seeing the ol Mirage down Stuart Highway at 25 Aggles doing a RNAV (Road Navigation) home :ok:

Here was my first article when the Hornets were working up to deploy to Tindal. I was.....18! Good mates Ross Fox and Mike Prior (JB) were flying the Hornets on the day of the trial, R.I.P Foxy!

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e123/Fox3snapshot/PPrune/hornetstindal.jpg

[tinpis]

:hmm:

Picky....I know...

Katherine's River, the first perennial running water along the route north from Alice Springs, was originally dubbed The Catherine by John McDouall Stuart in 1862 after his patron's daughter, but the spelling changed and the town of Katherine was eventually settled to service the Overland Telegraph Line.

[flying-spike]

I remember catching a Herc from Townsville to do an engine change on an LOH about a year after that. Were you with 162 or 171?

[Fox3snapshot]

tinpis....

Possibly as there is conjecture over that issue, but Katherine, the township, was always Katherine. And over a 1000 K north of Alice springs.... :ok:

[Fox3snapshot]

I was with Ansett NT turning the F28's around for a while and we operated out of Tindal (mid 80's). Prior to that it was the F27 with TAA and Ansett which were also operated from Tindal after the old Katherine airport closed.

[Pseudonymn]

Interesting to note the old terminal building is still at the airport, they just moved it over to the side and Chartair now uses it as its KTN offices.

I've spent the night in that building a few years back. Didn't really get much sleep that night, they told me it was haunted. :uhoh:

[Richo]

Pseudo.

If it was haunted, I never heard a thing!!

Especialy since on most of the many nights I spent sleeping there, the RAAF always seemed to schedule some night flying. Considering the very close proximity to the threshold, I only wish that I had had a ghost problem!

[travelator]

I lived in that building too Richo. I frequently heard (what sounded like) somebody walking around the big common area in the middle. Hated that building. I was told that it used to be the town post office before it got moved to Tindal.

[tinpis]

Perhaps someone should contact this mob and see what we got for our $3000?


Katherine Historical Society Inc: $3,000 to research the history of the original Katherine Airport and terminal building.


http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/ntas/grants/2000.html

[VH-TFG]

:) I was based at Tindal for quite a while.

YPTN was built in the mid 70's as a "bare bones" RAAF base. I believe the old Katherine strip was closed about '75. The houses used by the construction squadron were vacated by the end of '75 and were then used for a short time to house some refugees from the Indonesian invasion of Portuguese Timor.

I started working at Tindal in the early 1980's and Tillair had definately been operating out of TN since 1977.

The RAAF used to come in every so often for an "excercise" bring in bladder tanks for a fuel dump etc. VB from the mobile mess was 20c a can!!:}

[B772]

Slightly off thread but where does Daly Waters fit into the picture. It was deemed suitable by AN for the DC9 if Alice Springs or Darwin was closed.

[Richo]

772

Daly waters was built by Warren Andersen (mega rich ex partrolist and ex Coles,I think owner).

The strip is Huge, it was designed for 747 freighters to carry live cattle out to asia. The pastoral company never did get going but there was a very exotic private zoo there for some time.
The company used to own a LR35, C402 and AS350B which were based there and around the country as required. The whole thing fell into a hole some years ago, with Mr Andersen making the news for shooting, or trying to anyway, the exotic animals after some arguments about feeding and unkeep.

Last time I was there was in a B200 in 02 or 03, on an Airmed flight. Threre was an RAAF C130 parked on the end of the runway, not quite sure why!

richo

[compressor stall]

Was that Daly Waters or Tipperary Station?

Tipperary had a brick and wrought iron fence around the whole strip if memory serves me correctly...! :eek: And they had a 402C LBB. Was on line with NAC for a while, then sat idle for a bit. Where is it now?

[Richo]

Hi Stallie

Hows the Ice

There are several strps in the Douglas/Daly area but most are quite short dirt farm strips. The only strip in that area capable of jet ops is Dally waters or the Tipparary station strip. I have always known it as Dally Waters, had to use it once for a med evac from Dalr River Mission as thier strip was out.

the fence was around the whole complex, in fact you had to walk across the runway from the accommodation to get to the Office and hanger complex.

[QSK?]

Crogs:My memory is fading but I thought that Katherin FS closed just before Cyclone Tracey and then was reopened after the event. Might be wrong though.The KN FSU officially closed at 0539 UTC on 26 April 1978. The airport was formally de-commissioned as a licenced aerodrome at the same time but continued to operate as an ALA until the mid-'80s.

The unit originally commenced in April 1942 as "Katherine Aeradio" and the DCA Aeradio operators lived and provided the service from tents located near the old airport. In June 1942, the Aeradio unit was moved to a private residence near the civil hospital and stayed there until 29 October 1945 whereupon it moved to the old FSU building which is now the Historical Society building.

PPruners may be interested in some excerpts that describe what life was like as a DCA Aeradio operator at the time:On arrival at this station I was very surprised to see the conditions under which the C.A. staff were carrying out their duties and living. The staff have tents and beds and so sleeping conditions are not so bad. Cooking is carried out in a small stove situated in the open and partially screened by a few sheets of galvanised iron. Messing takes place under a taupaulin spread over a wooden frame and no side protection from wind and dust. The actual operation of W/T is carried out in a primitive shelter which boasts of a so-called concrete floor with practically no protection from winds and the ever-present dust.

....Actually I am amazed that the radio functions under such conditions especially when it has been noted that every care is taken at other stations to combat the dust question. Sanitary conditions are very primitive and the flies are evident in their millions!

Generally, the conditions at Civil Aviation Station at Katherine are very trying and staff have endeavoured to make the best of things and they deserve credit for the way in which they carry out their duties under such conditions.Somehow, I just can't see the modern ATS officer putting up with these conditions in order to serve the interests of Airservices or the aviation public.

[Fantome]

Katherine was home base for Dr Clyde Fenton, ca 1934-1939. He was a one man band medico/pilot in his succession of DH Moths, for Clyde had a great propensity for walking away from crashes, immediately resuming the fund raising for his next one. Clyde's "Flying Doctor" is one of the funniest books of it's kind ever published. One time on a stinking hot day he took off from DN for KT. In the front was the KT hospital matron. After an hour or so bouncing around Clyde was concerned to see her head and shoulders moving round vigorously. No voice tube and no radio needless to say.

Clyde hands her a note "You alright?"

Back comes matron's note. "Yes. I am now thank you. Now that I've got my blessed corsets off."

Hard book to come by. The Central Australian Air Museum in ASP had a few copies recently. Contact Perry Morey. (He, incidentally, is an authority on the life of the late Clyde. Has an unpublished bio.)

............................................................ ...........................................

Regarding the airport at Daly Waters - Peter 'Rocket' Wilson was a QF LAME based DN in 1049 days. He tells the story of EA-something bound DN-SY (ca. 1955) making an emergency landing at Daly Waters missing a section of cowl that's fallen off. Rocket hared down the highway with a set of steps (none in Daly Waters) on a trailor. Sized up the job then hunted round for some sheet metal. Ended up cutting a section off the sides of the steps to fashion a temporary repair.

Rocket also tells one about an Anglo Indian LAME working for QF in Karachi. Some dirty bastard has crapped in the wash basin of a 1049 staging through. Note in log says "Urinal used as arsinal". Said gent signs off item with "rectumfied."

And you won't read that little one in any footnotes to any QF history. Huddie would turn in his grave.

[Kanga767]

Daly Waters is nowhere near the Douglas/Daly district...

The old Tindal civil terminal building was bulldozed and a new one was built right next to it in the early 1990s. The Chartair building has another history, as someone pointed out. The old post office story does ring a bell.

The Ansett F28 service operated from that old civil terminal at Tindal until the operations ceased in 1990ish. Before that, the AN/TN daily F27 milk run operated out of there too. Look up Airliners.net and pics of TN F27 parked out front.


K

[maxgrad]

fantome, reading that very book now. thats what you call an aeromed operation!

I also stayed in that building but never saw or felt a ghost. Used to have a really cool green tree frog door stop onto the veranda........up to the point I saw the door stop climb the wall to catch an insect.

The old airstrip, as stated still has the old terminal building and stil is a museum, if you are passing through Katherine it is well worth a look.

[rmcdonal]

I was never a big fan of Tindal, too straight, Much preferred landing at Maude Creek. :}:ok:

[spinner63]

hey I remebe the old cessna 180 it was RFO and the parachutists i dropped in rell week once were not wearing a lot!

[Cleared Visual]

About 10 years ago there was usually a Mooney at the Manbulloo mango farm strip. One of the Darwin aero club guys told me the strip was used by the local skydiving club. That was one sweet looking aeroplane, but surely not suitable for meat bombing! Strangely it was also the only aircraft I ever saw there...

The Katherine Museum at the old town airstrip has (or did have pre 2006 flood) a Gypsy Moth that once belonged to Clyde Fenton.

[spinner63]

the old strip was a haven for parachuting in the mid 80'swhen I was there
the club owned the old cessna 180 (r f o) - we called it rougho as it was!

Occiasionally a 206 (EED) was cross hired for night drops as RFO wasnt up to night flying standards

At that time manbulloo wasnt a mango farm - i have seen it recently they seem to have turned the runway into a road with sheds along it

I rember around 1987 a couple of line markers were convinced by a couple of slapbs of green cans to come in and repaint the markings on the runway - made it look pretty smick !

[spinner63]

the other thing I remember is in ealry 1987 the old post office was moved to the airport and became till airs office

last time i was in town someone was living there!

[Big Girl 727]

From Fred Niven's Ansett history :
On 17 April 1991, Ansett N.T. ceased operations, after F28 VH-FKF operated the last Ansett W.A. F28 Darwin-Katherine-Tennant Creek-Alice Springs service.
Most services were taken over by Ansett./Ansett W.A., with the Alice Springs-Darwin ‘milk run’ being taken over by Skyport.

FKF had Ansett N.T. titles.
Skyport used C441 LEM and XMJ.

[displaced gangster]

Manbullo was built in the early forties as a maintenance base for B24 Liberator bombers, after VJ Day, Manbullo along with numerous other facilities throughout Northern Australia were vacated.

The runway became part of the access road between the Victoria Highway and Manbullo station, from memory the main product from Manbullo station was Rock melons.

The Katherine Skydiving Club aircraft RFO was in fact a 1958 C182A, due to it spending much of its early life operating out of Tennant Creek area it was relatively free of corrosion. Designed to run on 80-87 octane it required spark plug cleaning on a semi regular basis as the only Avgas available was 100-130.

There were numerous WW2 memorabilia discovered, partly buried including pistols,machine guns .50 cal,engines parts and a enormous quantity of live .50cal ammo dumped in a creek.

B52's from Guam would conduct low level navex's <500ft to the west of Tindal and the smoke from those engines was a sight to behold.:ok:

[spinner63]

i can remember seeing a low level b52 on my way back to tyndal one day - it sure caused a stir overflying the gorge
dg - i reckon you know a lot more about rfo than I do !
was your nickname bird related?

[maxgrad]

Richo,

The building that is now Chartair was originally the Katherine Post Office.

[Big Girl 727]

C182A VH-RFO still flying in the NT. See photo at Home (http://www.bawinanga.com)

[Big Girl 727]

Great photos of the VH-EAA diversion Daly Waters at:

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4499085 (http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4499085)

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4499157
(http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4499157)

[bizbug182]

Richo, I have owned KRH for 13 years heard lots of stories but never this one please elaborate

[zac21]

If I remember correctly RFO was part owned by Jim McHours, an ex Buntine road train sub-contractor. (And Buntines only sub-contractor)
I landed at Manbuloo with Jim in the mid/ late 80's in a Twin Comanche for fuel during the fuel shortage. Manbuloo was overgrown then with just enough width for the Comanche.

[saintmikeII]

Katherine FS closed in early to mid 1978 whilst I was stationed at Kununurra FS. I recall seeing Tindal airport in 1973 so I think it was originally built in the late 1960's (memory hazy but RAAF 5 AC (airfield construction) U I think did much of the work).

[C441]

I spent early 80 to late 85 working for Tillair, in and out of Tindal on a regular basis.

The old Katherine town strip near the hospital was virtually never used in my time there - well not by choice anyway....

A Philippines Air Force Nomad did land there one morning thinking he was at Tindal! After a couple of ambulances raced out thinking it was a forced landing, the Philippinos realised Australia's Air Force infrastructure, albeit this one only used annually, was a bit better than an overgrown, half dug-up strip of pot-holed bitumen.

He can't have been too bad though. He didn't hit any of the horses grazing on the strip. And he did sneek across from the hospital to Tindal to get some fuel without telling AJ at Darwin F.S. but that's another story.......

[weighman]

Don,t know which "boggy" u are, but wud be good to catch up!!!
I was the "mechanic" there. I get back there regularly with my work.

The old strip has a museum there now, but nothing on Tillair. It needs to be mentioned for the contribution we made.

[weighman]

I was the "mechanic" there in those times.

Get back to old town regularly on business. The museum doesn't have much on Tillair, but shoud due to the contribution we made.

We should talk some time.:ok:

[weighman]

Sorry bout the 2 replies. Thought the first didn't get thru.