Skip to main content
  • Home

    • /

  • RAAF Flying Boat Maintenance Base

RAAF Flying Boat Maintenance Base

Japanese bombing of Port Moresby in February 1942 meant that a safer anchorage was required for RAAF No.11 and 20 Squadron Catalina flying boats operating from there. The port of Bowen served as a base for about six months until both squadrons moved north to establish their main maintenance and refuelling base at Cairns. In 1944 a permanent flying boat slipway of reinforced concrete was constructed on the seaward side of Admiralty Island facing the incoming tide. This enabled damaged aircraft coming in from the Coral Sea to run straight onto the slipway on landing.

Today most of these installations have rusted away or been consumed by mangroves, but surviving evidence includes several barges, an area of prefabricated steel wharf, and a concrete slipway.

Place information

Location

Admiralty Island -Trinity Inlet

Cairns, QLD 4870

Open in Google maps

Place type

Workshop

History

Cairns-based Catalinas commenced their nightly operations known as the 'Milk Run' early in November 1942. These were nightly patrols to blockade Japanese shipping movements from the north into the Buna, Salamaua, Lae and Finschaffen districts. For nine months the Catalinas left base in time to reach the approaches to the patrol area about dusk, usually landing at Port Moresby or Milne Bay in the morning to refuel for the flight back to Cairns. In the first four months of operations from Cairns, No.11 and 20 Squadrons between them, flew a total of 20,152 hours and dropped a total of 480...

Suggest an edit
Share

Copy Link

Nearby places