The Williamtown RAAF Base Group is a heritage-listed group of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) buildings and other items at RAAF Base Williamtown in New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
History
The area of the base, on coastal land, was first settled as grants probably initially used for pastoral grazing. Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass was granted in 1840, preceded by William Harvey's grant of in 1839.
In the 1880s Snodgrass's original grant was subdivided into small farms for dairy farming. William Harvey's grant had been broken up by the 1860s, also into small farms, at a time when the village area of Williamtown was first established. A school and post office had opened by 1868. By the 1920s the area had become part of the farm district supplying the Raymond Terrace Cooperative Dairy and Produce Company Ltd, set up in 1904.
RAAF Base Williamtown appears to have grown from the recognition by local authorities in 1938 that Newcastle needed additional airport facilities to relieve pressure on the field at District Park, Broadmeadow. The Willamtown site was selected by the Australian Government and surveyed in August 1939, for the construction of an emergency landing ground prior to the onset of the World War II. An overriding factor was the proximity of Newcastle's steel mills and coal mines. A Hunter Water pumping station was erected in the late 1930s as part of the Tomago Sandbeds Water Supply Scheme, with a separate second pumping station erected to service the base.
Work began in January 1940 with being spent on construction as part of the Government of New South Wales Unemployment Relief Program. Four runways were completed by September 1940. From September 1940 new facilities included a guard house, staff garages, control tower, flight operations room, medical rooms, kitchen, mess, airmen's and flight sergeants' dormitories and a compound for the construction authorities. By mid-December 1940 a total of 62 buildings had been completed in the "camp area" in the south-east sector of the aerodrome. The RAAF did not take over the base until February 1941, although Lockheed Hudson bombers had been stationed there as a temporary base for anti-submarine operations.
The base was officially opened in February 1941, participating in the Empire Air Training Scheme as a mustering centre for airmen. Landscaping at this time included grassing over the parade ground and tree planting on Townsend Avenue. From September 1941 to February 1942 the base operated as No.2 Recruit Depot, with the aerodrome upgraded to provide for an operational base. In June 1941 5 bomb-dump buildings were erected and by October runways 1 and 3 (of 4) were extended. By November six aircraft dispersal bays had been constructed to the south of the site, each with two shelter hangars.
Following the entry of the United States of America into the War, use of the base was transferred to Southern Area Command (RAAF) in January 1942. Formal administration of the base was taken over by American forces from May 1942 to September 1942. With the departure of the Central Gunnery School, No. 4 Operational Training Unit was raised in October 1942. At its peak, the base had some 888 personnel including 115 from the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). New lecture halls and test facilities, including gas chambers, were erected to complement the four Bellman hangars and five workshop hangars.
Following the end of the War in the Pacific in August 1945, the number of personnel was rapidly reduced. At the end of 1945 the RAAF had 317 mainland and regional airfields. Of these some 12 were considered of strategic importance; Butterworth, Cocos Island, Momote, Darwin, Learmonth, Williamtown, Townsville, Pearce, East Sale, Richmond and Amberley. Willamtown became the peacetime base for the RAAF fighter wing. In August 1946, RAAF Station Williamtown became the base of No. 78 (Fighter) Wing.
In November 1948 the School of Land/Air Warfare, a joint services training unit, was established at Williamtown. Two army units, the parachute and air portability training wings, were attached to the School. A parachute tower and armament range were provided. In 1958 the School was renamed the Air Support Unit. In 1976 a new purpose-built facility, for the renamed Australia Joint Warfare Establishment, was completed at Williamtown.