Cressy Aerodrome: History From Ground To Air in Cressy, Victoria | Landmark & historical place

Cressy Aerodrome: History From Ground To Air

Locality: Cressy, Victoria

Phone: +61 481 327 587

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24.01.2022 Over the coming weeks we will be telling the story of the Wirraway. To give this aircraft justice we will be doing a number of stories about it, including its connection to Cressy. If you have any stories or information about the Wirraways at Cressy , please feel free to make contact with us, we would love to hear from you. A20 CAC Wirraway...Continue reading

24.01.2022 To the West of Cressy lay two lakes, Lake Gnarpurt and Lake Corangamite. These two lakes played a major role in the training of aircrew during World War Two and would also be the final resting place for a couple of Wirraways. Lake Gnarpurt is located in a closed drainage basin approximately 27 kilometres north-east of Colac in the Western District of Victoria. The lake covers an area of about 2,350 hectares (5,800 acres) and is a moderately saline. Depending on the amount o...Continue reading

24.01.2022 It is with a degree of sadness that we are informing you that we have made the decision to postpone our planned event set for the 14th and 15th of November 2020. We held off for as long as we could before making this decision, but due to the Covid issue we had no choice but to postpone. We do apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused for any planning you may have made to attend this event. What we can tell you is that we are planning for a post Covid event and will keep you posted on developments.

22.01.2022 Just recently we had a visit from Steve Bloxham, President of the Terang RSL, to our old RAAF base. Steve very kindly brought along his drone and took some fantastic footage of the base for us. Thank you Steve for you time and effort,it certainly gave us a different view of the site. #CressyRAAFbase #WW2RAAFbase... #WW2RAAF #RoyalAustralianAirForce #Cressy #Victoria See more

22.01.2022 21 Squadron members Allan May and Alfred Hilder had been posted to Cressy Aerodrome to conduct training exercises with the squadron in area and over Lake Corangamite. At 8.55am, May 10th, 1940, Flying Officer Allan Lindsay May (Pilot) and Pilot Officer Alfred Vindin' Hilder (Passenger) were engaged in machine-gun exercises when the aircraft was seen to go into a spin and crash into Lake Corangamite, some distance from the shore. Although the water was only two feet deep, the... rescue party had to wade through mud several feet deep to reach the scene of the accident. The nose of the machine was completely submerged, only the rear portion of the fuselage being visible above the surface. Flying Officer Allan Lindsay May, 25 years, was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, and Melbourne University, where he obtained a degree in Civil engineering. Before joining the Air Force, he was a keen militiaman, having served four years with 2nd Artillery Survey Company. He was appointed to the Air Force as an engineer officer, and commenced a flying training course at Point Cook on January 16, 1939, and was promoted to flying officer in October of that year. His next of kin is his mother, Mrs. Ethel May, 4 Canberra-grove, Malvern. Pilot Officer Alfred Vindin Hilder, 28 years, was one of a group of young men with civil flying experience who was selected soon after the outbreak of war to undertake an intermediate course of training at Point Cook for appointment as pilot officer in the R.A.A.F. He commenced the course on November 6, and graduated in February last. He was subsequently posted at No. 1 Armament training station,' Cressy. Hilder was educated at Chatswood Intermediate High School, Sydney. His next of kin is his mother, Mrs. R. M. Hilder, 10 Broughton-road, Artamon, New South Wales. Alfred was Bank officer before enlisting and had previous military service ,18 months in the 21st Light Horse and 8 months with 7th Field Brigade. Both men are buried at Williamstown General Cemetery in the Church of England section. As for Wirraway A20-49, it was never recovered. Sadly, we do not have a photo of Allan May to add to this story. If you have any information relating to either of this two men, or people who served at the Cressy Aerodrome, please get in touch. Information sourced from Trove ADF Serial Commonwealth War Graves Commission National Australian Archives Australian War Memorial World war 2 roll

21.01.2022 Tomorrow, Saturday the 15th of August, 2020 will mark the 75th Anniversary of the end of World War Two. The 15th of August 1945 saw the surrender of the Japanese and the end of hostilities. Australia’s contribution to this war was immense for our population size. We saw our men and women serve in a number of locations around the world, from North Africa, Europe, The Mediterranean, Middle East and the Pacific region. All services played their part with the support of us back h...ome. At the start of the War we were very much under resourced and we certainly Punched above our weight when the fighting started. The RAAF was the first of our forces in the Pacific to be in action against the Japanese, and was there at the end. From a small Air force at the beginning of the war, with outdated equipment and low personnel numbers and bases, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) at the end of the war would be the fourth largest Air force in the world, behind USA, Russia and Great Britain. We had RAAF personal serve in all theaters and often in very trying conditions. Cressy RAAF base saw many men train here and go onto fight overseas, many came home, some did not. So, Tomorrow, we will take a moment to reflect on the deeds of those men and women who served with pride and diligence in defending our homeland, our country we call Australia. We will Remember them.

21.01.2022 As we continue to raise awareness to the RAAFs involvement at the Cressy Aerodrome during WW2, we are always looking for information that we can add to our page and to the Cressy story.. If you have any info that is relevant to the Cressy RAFF Aerodrome please feel free to contact us. Today's story is about another pilot who served at Cressy during WW2, his name is John Hastwell....Continue reading

19.01.2022 Yesterday marked a new milestone for the Cressy Aerodrome. It saw the first aircraft to land on the second, and longest runaway, since 1946. A number of test landings were made and all went well. The second runaway "taxiway" will be the next project, which will complete the ground circuit. We are looking forward to seeing more aircraft getting the opportunity to use it in the future.

08.01.2022 10:40, March 17, 1943, CA-8 Wirraway Serial Number A20-406 made a force landing into six inches of water, about 400 yards offshore of Lake Corangamite near Colac, Victoria. The crew, Pilot, Sgt Arthur Clarence Dawson was not injured, while Observer P/O Leslie Hoad Farrow was only slightly injured. Both men would continue to serve in the RAAF. Arthur Clarence Dawson Born on the 31st of August 1921 at Haberfield in NSW....Continue reading

08.01.2022 After the RAAF took delivery of the Wirraways, a good number of them would be stationed at Cressy. A number of these aircraft were modified at handle Tow Targets or Drogues as they were also known as, for gunnery practice. The "Grumman" style winch was fitted to the Wirraways for this particular job. This enabled the cable to spool out with the drogue, to a safe operating distance before Gunnery shooting could commence. These Drogues were typically a fabric sleeve and were... attached to the end of a long cable towed behind the aircraft. Student fighter pilots or air gunners would shoot at the target from other aircraft using painted bullets so that hits could be recorded and later analysed. The drogue would often be jettisoned at some location convenient for recovery prior to the aircraft's landing. The drogue itself caused a great deal of drag and could be dangerous, particularly to less-powerful aircraft. If the engine failed, the drag from the drogue could be enough to reduce the airspeed of the aircraft below stall speed before the drogue could be jettisoned. On our Facebook page cover photo, you will see a number of Wirraways, one of them is A20-449. This aircraft was built in 1941 and saw service with a number of units and survived a number of incidents. By 1943 it was fitted with drogue towing gear and painted in the trainer yellow scheme. It arrived at Cressy in January 1945 after a posting at Laverton. A year later it would be in storage at Tocumwal, until it was sold to L and M Newman in 1957, still in its yellow paint scheme. The first Wirraway (A20-183) fitted with target towing gear would serve with No. 1 Armament Training Station, Cressy, Victoria, from 28 of June 1941 to 23rd of March 1942. This aircraft would be reassigned to operations with 23rd squadron, when in March 1943 it was involved in training accident which sadly saw both crew members killed. Wirraway A20-660 was allocated to Cressy from December 1944 to July 1945 for the purpose of Target towing. When war ended it continued to be used by the RAAF until mid-1959, when it was eventually sold to R. H. Grant Trading Company on the 09th of December 1959.

06.01.2022 Aviation Report Review: The Last Navigator Author: Paul Goodwin (With Gordon Goodwin) Publisher: Allen & Unwin (review copy provided) RRP: $32.99AUD Reviewer: D Makowski...Continue reading

05.01.2022 With the War building up, so to were the number of aircraft and personnel needed to fight in it. This was also the case with the RAAF Base at Cressy. It was expanding and more aircraft would arrive to be used to train the ever-growing number of aircrews. As an advance trainer, the Wirraway worked well. Cressy saw a good number of Wirraways being used at the base. Their training roles included Aerial reconnaissance/navigation, bombing and gunnery practice, they did all this in...Continue reading

02.01.2022 The Cressy Aerodrome is located right beside the Hamilton Highway and the railway line that runs from Geelong to Hamilton. It is also 22 miles north of Colac and south west of Ballarat in Victoria, making it a good location for a RAAF base. It became operational in July 1939 when the Armament Training Squadron moved there. Later in 1942 the General Reconnaissance School from Point Cook moved to Cressy Airfield. The main reason for establishing a major training base so close t...o Melbourne was that both Laverton and Point Cook were fully occupied with the assembly of aircraft. The training roll of this base went through a few changes during the war. From the Number 1 Armament Training School, to General Reconnaissance School and then it was the Central Gunnery School. So, what could you expect to learn while at the RAAF base at Cressy, well, quite a bit it seems. For example, if you were training to become an Observer/Navigator in 1943, your subjects would be Patrol and Search, Instruments, Maps and Charts reading, Magnet and Compass, Meteorology, Signals, Reconnaissance, Ship recognition, Photography and some more. All theory was done in the Lecture hall and practical would have been done, at the time, in either the Wirraways or Avro Ansons. A course like this would last about eight weeks and if you passed, you would be sent onto another unit for the next level of training. Other subjects relating to the 1st Armament and Central Gunnery school would have been more tailored to the trainees attending these courses at the base. Info and Photos sourced from Australian War Memorial. Victorian State Library