Truscott Airfield declared restricted area-used to evacuate injured
Submitted: Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 10:00
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Truscott Airfield comes 'to life' during emergency evacuation of injured boat people. Bet those who built it would be chuffed.
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Reply By: Member - joc45 (WA) - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 11:27
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 11:27
These days, it's an airfield servicing the oil rigs off shore from there and is
well maintained. Apparently, they don't like visitors (understand special permission must be obtained to land there, and landing fees are very expensive), tho there have been some remembrance visits there by old WWII airmen from time to time.
Not sure when it was restored, but it was abandoned for some time after the war. I know an old army guy who said he visited it in the 50's - attached to some boat patrol in the area at the time, and found by chance the loading wharf some kms from the site. Walked in on the overgrown track and found the airfield (sounds like he had a pretty laid back period of service!). There were lots of wrecks scattered around then, but guess a lot of stuff has been since removed, tho at the time, it wouldn't have been worth pulling anything out apart from working aircraft.
Google earth shows it up
well.
I've seen a map which showed a track from Kulumburu into there, but Google shows nothing, and anyway, the Council at Kulumburu refuse access anywhere around there.
Gerry
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Follow Up By: Peter_n_Margaret - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 12:27
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 12:27
"I've seen a map which showed a track from Kulumburu into there, but Google shows nothing, and anyway, the Council at Kulumburu refuse access anywhere around there"
There is a track to Truscott, but I have not driven it.
It appears on the 1:50,000 charts.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome
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Follow Up By: westskip - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 15:14
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 15:14
Flew out there from
Wyndham in the early sixties.Had a mate with us who spent aweek out there cannibalising jeeps for spare parts that he sold through his business in
Perth. Very interesting flight.
John
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Follow Up By: Member - joc45 (WA) - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 15:55
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 15:55
Hi Peter, yeh, that prob was the map I saw. I enqired at Kulumburu about access, and I was given a very emphatic "no". Not wishing a gaol term plus a spearing for violating their lands, I didn't push it further.
Hi Westskip, would it have been worth it flying jeep parts out of that place, or were they that rare? Or was the aircraft cheap?
cheers,
Gerry
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Follow Up By: westskip - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 17:12
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 17:12
Hi joc45
Apparently the jeep parts were extremely rare and it was worth my friend's time and effort to get them. Had to fly back out to Truscott to pick him and the parts up. I was living and working in
Wyndham at the time so it was up to me to organise the charter flights and for the parts to be flown to
Perth.
Incidentally Bluey Truscott who the filed is named after was killed in
Exmouth Gulf when he flew his fighter into the sea on one of those hazy days when you couldn't see the horizon.
John
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Follow Up By: Peter_n_Margaret - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 18:55
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 18:55
Gerry it is possible to get permission to enter those lands, but a different approach is required. The Community Council CEO will always follow the 'official' line.
Cheers,
Peter.
OKA196 Motorhome
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Follow Up By: Member - joc45 (WA) - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 20:21
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 20:21
Hi
John, yes I recall the story of the plane crash at
Exmouth. From your recollection, was there much at Truscott when you flew in? (I mean before your mate cleaned the place out? :-)
Hi Peter, yes, at the time managed to get permission to other
places, like
Drysdale River NP, but Truscott track was a definite NO. My impression at the time was that the track would have been
well and truly washed out anyway, having seen other unmaintained tracks up there, so it wasn't too much of an issue.
cheers,
Gerry
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Follow Up By: westskip - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 20:42
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 20:42
joc45
My memory must be going but I can definitely remember 40/50 jeeps lined up plus a heap of Blitz Buggies. More or less landed, dropped my mate off with his swag & supplies and got out of the place.Had to return twice, once to pickup my mate then again to collect the spares which were then sent down south with MMA.
Now you've got me remembering all sorts of things including going fishing across the salt marsh in an Armoured Personnel Carrier of WW2 vintage. Wyndhan was pretty wild & wooly in those days.
John
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Follow Up By: Member - joc45 (WA) - Saturday, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:11
Saturday, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:11
40-50 jeeps lined up! Amazing!
Re the APC, yeh, I guess there was a lot of stuff just abandoned up there after the war, avail for the taking. What couldn't be sold was just left there. In the 60's I recall stories of an abaondoned Spitfire which someone had got working and was seen buzzing a few
places in the top end, much to the annoyance of the Govt.
Reminds me of the Spitfires which were lined up somewhere at
Maralinga for the atomic tests to see what happened to them in an atomic blast. Some were still in good condition when I recall they were sold back in the 70's, probably still radioactive! Perhaps a member has recollections of this story.
cheers,
Gerry
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Follow Up By: Member - Noel K (NT) - Saturday, Apr 25, 2009 at 13:33
Saturday, Apr 25, 2009 at 13:33
G'DAY Gerry,
Those Spitfires at
Maralinga you mention were actually Mustangs at Emu Flats the site of the fist atomic bomb tests on Australian soil. Len Biddell's Book "Blast The Bush"describes the whole 12 months it took to set up the tests.
Quite some years after, a cheeky mob went in and restored a couple to a state good enough to fly out and broke quite a few aviation rules in doing so.
Amazingly I have just finished reading the book "TRUSCOTT SECRET" by
John and Carol Beasy, a day to day diary of the activities of the base. It is absolutely amazing what went on there.
Noel
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Reply By: Pete Jackman (SA) - Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 16:06
Friday, Apr 24, 2009 at 16:06
I have been there.
There is the wreck of a B24 north west of the main runway that crashed on take off with a load of depth charges. Details
here.
A couple of Japanese aircraft are in the scrub around the place including the remnants of a Dinah.
There were also 2 spitfire wrecks.
The remnants of the most magnificent 8 hole dunny are not far from the old officers quarters.
There is a road from the airfield to the beach where there was a barge landing.
Near the beach there is truck park with about 20 odd trucks lined up, a stack of 200 or so steel helmets, bundles of marsden matting, bomb tail fins and assorted other junk.
Around the airfield are the taxiways and revetments with sundry bits and pieces.
About 12 k to the south west is the wreck of a C53 (DC3) that missed
Broome and landed there when the go juice ran out.
The aircraft flew out in 1945, but the ground team was left there to keep the base open until '47. The Santos caretakers had collected a heap of info about the place including the diary of the RAAF chaplain who was trying to keep up the spirits of a bunch of guys who thought they were forgotten and wanted to go
home.
There is road access ... sort of.
The air force sent a team in 1995 to drive from
Kalumburu (about 45km). It took them 2 days in 4wd trucks.
Pete
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Follow Up By: Member - joc45 (WA) - Saturday, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:19
Saturday, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:19
Hi Pete,
Thanks for that interesting info. These sort of
places are almost like a Marie Celeste. That's how this ex-army mate described it back in the mid-50's - just came across this barge landing spot with a track leading off to this abandoned
infrastructure.
Re the 8-hole dunny, Doug posted a query here some months back trying identify one of these at Fenton airbase. A member jokingly suggested it was a dunny, and that's what it did turn out to be, abiet only a more humble 4-hole one.
Re the track in, the weather can do an awful lot to a track in 14 years, so if it took the airforce 2 days then, it'd be in pretty bad condtion now. Or perhaps the air force were better at flying planes than driving 4wd's :-)
cheers,
Gerry
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Follow Up By: Pete Jackman (SA) - Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 09:26
Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 09:26
The RAAF basically bush bashed it. There was a track on the map but not much on the ground. Chainsaws and
winches all the way.
Santos who ran the field at the time reluctantly gave us permission to visit on the understanding that we had no contact with the caretakers (?) and were completely independent It is amazing how much bush tucker you can find around a place like that (especially the steaks and sausages) and how quickly you can set up hot showers and
toilets. ;o)
We flew there in a Caribou and spent 3 days on the ground. What was spooky was that the engines on the B24 wreck were the same as the ones on the Caribou except the Caribou didn't have the superchargers. We walked out to the C53 wreck which was interesting.
I'll have to scan in some photos and post them here when I get back for
Darwin.
Pete
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Follow Up By: Member - joc45 (WA) - Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 10:09
Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 10:09
Hi Pete,
Yes, those photos would be interesting.
I take it you are/were a RAAF chappy?
You were obviously
well-trained in living off the land ;o)
Gerry
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Follow Up By: Pete Jackman (SA) - Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 17:51
Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 17:51
Not a RAAF chappie back then in 1991. I was a naval officer attached to a
Darwin Joint Force HQ (NORCOM). I was the only pusser attached to a army team doing a recce of remote airfields.
I remember how cold it was at night. I ended up pulling my hootchie down and rolling up in it.
We all had passes for all the closed areas so could go pretty much where we needed to, includung a memorable trip in 2 land rovers from
Timber Creek via
Victoria River Downs to Kulkarangie where the marked tracks just vanished and we did 200 km across gibber plains with a JOG map and magnetic compasses. I got very good at tyre changing on that trip.
Cheers
Pete
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Follow Up By: Member - joc45 (WA) - Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 17:55
Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 17:55
All that and getting paid for it!!
Guess you have to put up with the excellent times as
well as the good times!
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Follow Up By: Pete Jackman (SA) - Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 18:14
Monday, Apr 27, 2009 at 18:14
And that wasn't the best job I had.
Captain of a Patrol Boat was the most fun.
Pete
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