Empire flying boats
 

I live in Karumba, Nth. Qld, Australia and am interested in the Catalina flying boat base and the Empire flying boat bases that were here during and after WW2. Can anyone help.

Yep, that decaying pier you fish off out the back of the animal bar is the original one the boats docked to I believe.

There should be a wealth of info in Qantas history books.

For interest, why would Karumba be a war time amphibian base? Can't see the strategic importance? Was the road to Cairns built then - or was it post war? (I seem to recall Karumba and Normanton only had sea links with Cairns in the 1950's?)

Torres , I suspect you missed a point.

It was a flying boat base, no amphibians in sight [of the aviation variety.] The majority of RAAF PBY's had their landing gear removed on arrival at Rathmines/Lake Boga and the wheel wells faired over [they needed the reduced weight to achieve their planned missions.] The only RAAF PBY amphibians were air-sea rescue craft and precious few in the Gulf [Bowen and NG mostly?]

If one looks at how to get an Empire boat of the '30's from Darwin to the SE, the bottom of the Gulf gives a reasonable over-land leg to the Pacific waters of the East coast. Hence Karumba. Amazing to stand on the boat ramp at Karumba and think of the flying boats ashore there in the '30/40's.

G'day :)

If you are interested in Flying Boats you may like to read a book by Alexander Frater called 'Beyond The Blue Horizon' - (On the Track of Imperial Airways).

Frater is an Australian who, as a child flew several times between Sydney and Fiji. In later years he replicated the flying boat journey from the UK to Australia, flying via modern aircraft but following as closely as possible the original route and going into some detail about how it used to be. I found it very hard to put down.

You will be able to find it by going to:

http://www.abebooks.com

They are currently listing a bookshop called Klanhorn, in Queanbeyan, NSW as having a copy at A$25.50.

Hope this helps.

My 80 y.o. f-in-law flew many WWII missions in Catalinas. If you send me a private message with your name and postal details, plus any specific info required, I'll pass it on to him. He'd be delighted that someohe wants to hear about Catalinas and will be very happy to send you info about Catalinas, I think he was based at Doctor's Gully in Darwin.

There is a book called Black Cats which gives the wartime history of the flying boats and their bases around Oz the type you can't put down till finished Cheers Q

One of my cherished memories in the early 1960's was flying on TAA's "Sunbird Service" PBY Catalina from Port Moresby to Samarai, and returning on Beeps ship MV "Bulolo", which carried war honors from WWII.

I wonder what happened to that Cat? It sat at POM airport for years as a toy for the Firies, but heard it later went to NZ for restoration.