Airstrip Cabarita/Hastings Point

[Motorola]

Hi, Google satellite shows what looks like a disused airstrip near the beach between Cabarita and Hastings Point, south of Kingscliff, NSW.

(-28.3449968,153.5746381)

Any info on this please?

Thanks, M

[triton140]

The sign on the entrance track says "KEEP OUT - EFFLUENT DISPOSAL AREA".

If it's an airstrip, it sounds pretty crappy.

[mcoates]

I was told (hanger talk at the airport) that this was used to fly people up from Sydney on a Foker Friendship to sell them a slice of Queensland for retirement. (didn't matter it was still in NSW) This must of happened 20-30 years ago. It could all be wrong but just passing on the information.

[Lancair70]

WOW, I did all my training around there in late 80's early 90's and dont recall seeing anything like a strip there but certainly looks like one. Was one further south near Wooyung, one over near Mooball that my instructors liked to use for practice forced landings.

[bloodandiron]

If you look at satellite imagery from 2003 on Google Earth you'll see there was nothing there. I'd wager a guess that the strip of land would not be able to take a Fokker Friendship due to its length and surface type.

[Possum1]

Mcoates is talking about Tyagarah which was originally built by developers to fly prospects in, in the '70s.

[mcoates]

Tyagarah is at 90 degrees to the coast, this strip runs parallel to the beach. I don't know the history of Tyagarah but Ian McPhee (glider specialist) has pretty much lived there forever and would know for sure.

As i mentioned, it was only hanger talk when we were talking about it one day after flying back from Evans Head with a group on a club fly-away day and spotted it. It is actually longer than it looks and i don't know how much has overgrown in the past 20-30 years.

[Lancair70]

I have lived in the area most of my life and never recall any Fokkers at Tyagarah, doubt theyd get in there with only 1000m. Im probably wrong about length req'd but as I said, I dont recall anything that big there.

Thanks bloodandiron, I was beginning to suspect my memory was faulty, LOL. glad to hear it wasnt there in 2003.

[Aviation enthusiast]

It may have been a old ww2 airfield according to some locals.
There is a nature walk right there that basically goes into the clearing.
Signs on the nature walk also said that a project was made for reforesting the area and also said something about a wastewater project that I think is in the clearing/old airstrip.

[Aviation enthusiast]

It is about 849m according to Google maps measuring tool

[ButFli]

It is a trench for the disposal of effluent from the nearby Hastings Point Wasterwater Treatment Plant. It's kept clear of vegetation so that roots don't clog up the filtration system.

Not possible to be a WWII-era anything because the whole area was sand mined up until the 1970s.

[FloppsyTopsy]

The sandy clearing referred to at Cabarita is an old disused army training strip once used for caribou; most of the entire area was fairly treeless until after the 70's.

Aviation arrived in the Tyagarah area fairly early with joy flights being flown off the beach at brunswick heads in the 1920's. Even Smithy visited the area with the Southern Cross, landing at Tygalgah which relocated itself to become Murwillumbah.

There have been many small ag strips in the area over the decades. Esplanade at South Golden beach started off as a clay strip. Wallum near Brunswick Heads had a small ag strip till the 70's; and another on the corner of MCauleys Ln and Myocum Rd which is now a macadamia farm. Another now unusable private strip at Wooyong is still there. And another two unusable opposite Mullumbimby golf course; and another just to the north of that. There are two private strips in Commissioners Creek, and another in Knobbys Creek.

Both Bashforth and Ward earthmovers were sand mining all along the coast from Belongil right up to Kingscliff and performing earthworks throughout the area from the 40's up to the mid 70's and are both still operating today. Both ventures built most all of the strips in the area with Tyagarah being fashioned out in the mid 60's after being gazetted by the Crown as a Landing Place in July 1961.

Prior to 1961 Tyagarah's earliest aviation history started with Allan Ellis in the early 1930's with two aircraft in a shed at the eastern end of where the field is today. Ellis who was trained to fly by Kieth Virtue built and flew one single seat aircraft on his own and the second being an Avro-504. A hurricane hit the area in 1936 and destroyed the shed. Ellis remained involved in local aviation forming a group in 1947 to build an airport at Byron Bay where the industrial estate now resides. The project was bankrolled by the Australian Banana Growers Association and after numerous attempts and years to complete the project it was finally abandoned due to the ground proving unsuitable to support the heavy machinery required to create the strip.

An earlier proposal put fourth in 1937 to build an aerodrome at either one of Byron Bay or Mullumbimby's racecourses never gained enough traction due to financial challenges of the time.

Kieth Virtue perished along with Cpt Holden and Dr Hamilton in a tragic aircraft fatality at Myocum in 1931. The three fig trees planted in 1932 by the community at the accident site near the Barlow farm are still there to this day.