Quirky Airport Information

[Cocitus23]

I'm sure that you have all heard off-beat stories about airports. Let me start the ball rolling with one about my own home airport MEL.

Burke & Wills camped on the North-South runway. Well, of course, the runway was not there on the night of 21 August 1860, just as there are no stray camels wandering about there now. But certainly Messrs B and W were there, near the north end of the runway, along with 17 others, plus 26 camels, 23 horses and six wagons. It was their second camp of the expedition, the previous night having been spent at Moonee Ponds. From Royal Park they followed Flemington Rd, Mount Alexander Rd and Bulla Rd, across the site of Essendon Airport and on to Tullamarine. So the next time you are stuck in the Friday afternoon traffic on the Tulla Freeway, just be patient and remember that it took Burke and Wills two entire days to get there.

Upon waking on the morning of the 22nd, one of the Afghan camel herders, a fellow named Samla, handed in his resignation - a long way short of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Presumably Simla was here on some sort of forerunner of the 457 Visa. Ironically, his complaint was about the food. He certainly got out while the going was good, because as you all know, food was to become quite an issue for the expedition.

I don't know whether Simla overstayed his visa. Maybe he had a premonition of what was to become of the site of Camp 2, and he decided to hang around for a flight back to Kabul. Or maybe he is still sitting there beside the runway. Or maybe he has been shipped to Nauru and is awaiting processing.


I discovered this story in a recently published book, "Following Burke and Wills Across Australia" by Dave Phoenix, who has walked the entire route. Thoroughly recommended - the book, that is, not the walk.

I have stories relating to a couple of other airports, but will keep them up my sleeve until you share yours.

Cocitus23.

 

[JessicaTam]

Whilst I have nothing to share, I am looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[tuapekastar]

I'm sure that you have all heard off-beat stories about airports. Let me start the ball rolling with one about my own home airport MEL.

Burke & Wills camped on the North-South runway. Well, of course, the runway was not there on the night of 21 August 1860, just as there are no stray camels wandering about there now. But certainly Messrs B and W were there, near the north end of the runway, along with 17 others, plus 26 camels, 23 horses and six wagons. It was their second camp of the expedition, the previous night having been spent at Moonee Ponds. From Royal Park they followed Flemington Rd, Mount Alexander Rd and Bulla Rd, across the site of Essendon Airport and on to Tullamarine. So the next time you are stuck in the Friday afternoon traffic on the Tulla Freeway, just be patient and remember that it took Burke and Wills two entire days to get there.

Upon waking on the morning of the 22nd, one of the Afghan camel herders, a fellow named Samla, handed in his resignation - a long way short of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Presumably Simla was here on some sort of forerunner of the 457 Visa. Ironically, his complaint was about the food. He certainly got out while the going was good, because as you all know, food was to become quite an issue for the expedition.

I don't know whether Simla overstayed his visa. Maybe he had a premonition of what was to become of the site of Camp 2, and he decided to hang around for a flight back to Kabul. Or maybe he is still sitting there beside the runway. Or maybe he has been shipped to Nauru and is awaiting processing.


I discovered this story in a recently published book, "Following Burke and Wills Across Australia" by Dave Phoenix, who has walked the entire route. Thoroughly recommended - the book, that is, not the walk.

I have stories relating to a couple of other airports, but will keep them up my sleeve until you share yours.

Cocitus23.

Love random facts like this!

 

[medhead]

In relation to the side issue of Samla. I've discovered there is a whole lot of Afghan history in South Australia. Pop into the Standpipe Hotel in port Augusta and have a curry. But there was a story in The Advertiser about Mrs Akbar who was worried about here husband's job with the closure of Leigh Creek Coal mine. She was as Australian as anyone I've seen. Afghans have longer history in Australia than many, 1860 for Samla's descendants.

For random facts Sir Keith and Ross Smith landed in Adelaide within about 150m of my house.

 

[Cocitus23]

Many thanks to those of you who replied, and those of you who liked it. I had intended to move on to another airport, but before doing so, I think I should round out the Burke & Wills episode, especially for those of you who are partial to a little unexpected spice in life. Now I can almost hear some starched shirts among you complaining that this has absolutely nothing to do with the real business of this forum, namely the world of travel. But read on, and as you shall see, it has real relevance.

I mentioned that Camp 1 was in Moonee Ponds. In fact, it was in Queen's Park, just north of Moonee Ponds Junction. Now it seems that Robert O'Hara Burke, policeman and bachelor, was one who was quite partial to the joys of the flesh. At this time he carried quite an infatuation for one Julia Matthews, a light opera singer then performing at the Princess Theatre in Spring Street. He was suddenly taken by the thought that a night in the embrace of the comely Julia had a lot more to offer than dossing down under canvas in Queen's Park, so after dark he mounted up and galloped back into Melbourne. The Argus reported next morning that he had returned to town "on urgent business". Urgent indeed, as many who have known the urge would agree. In any case, he galloped back to Moonee Ponds in the morning, and no harm was done. Or was it? Certainly history tells us that poor old Burke had enjoyed his last gallop, and let us hope for his sake that it was memorable.
The relevance of this story is in its moral. Now I know that most of you are frequent business travellers, and it would not surprise me if the odd one of you has not been distracted, from time to time, from the true business purpose of your journey by the opportunity to avail yourself, like Burke, of what we might call carnal pleasures. So what did we learn from Burke? A noble venture side-tracked by boudoir shenanigans is likely to end in disaster. Don't you forget that.

Now, I promise, that's it for Burke & Wills. If you like, I'll think of another airport for tomorrow. But there will be no tales of licentiousness. It's unbecoming of the dignity of AustralianFrequentFlyer.com.au.

Cocitus23.

 

[Cocitus23]

Thanks for that, Medhead. Yes, Samla had three fellow sepoys on the expedition. Somewhere up in the interior Burke lost patience with both men and camels and turned them all loose. We know that the camels went feral, and, who knows, maybe the men did too. Mrs Akbar came from somewhere. And isn't that train "The Ghan" named after itinerant Afghan herdsmen?

Your comment about the Smiths landing adjacent to you made me wonder if there had ever been anything of significance in aviation history in my own bailiwick - Port Melbourne. And by golly, I remember now, there has. Last year I was over in Tassie, at Stanley on the NW coast, (great spot, check it out one day) and I came across a plaque saying that the first aerial crossing of Bass Strait was made from there to "Mr Carey's aerodrome" in Port Melbourne. I just Googled it, and it was on 16 December 1919. I was curious because now there's not enough room to swing a cat in Port Melbourne, let alone land an aircraft. Again thanks to Google I found that the noble Carey operated the airstrip from 1919 until 1928, all the time living in a corrugated hut on the site. For those who know the area, It was just back from the beach in the Garden City area.

 

[robd]

Not sure what your profession is, but you'd make a good history teacher. Very interesting and well related stories.

 

[Revolio]

At the old Essendon Airport in the 60's (just before the freeway was constructed, absorbing the old Niddrie quarry as a side-note) there used to be a watermelon vendor over summer. (Matthews Ave side) 2c a pound. Probably 1967 just after decimal currency. The southern side however, was much more interesting. Lover's lane. (strewn with used condoms). An engaged young man once tossed me a zack (sixpence, 5c) to go away from his car window {and me pushbike too} when in an meaningful encounter with his young lady friend. I still hope he found his investment as rewarding as the 12yo recipient. But when they did start clearing the houses around that time to make way for the freeway, some houses had fruit trees. Gorging on locquats, apples and pears was one of those memories that stays with you. (not to mention bring a cap full of lemons home for mum.) {and there are more Essendon Airport stories stored from 66/67}

 

[Cocitus23]

Thanks, Robd. You flatter me. No, I am not, and never was, a history teacher, although I must say that I find the idea very appealing. I am now retired after a lifetime as . . . wait for it . . . a civil engineer. Designing and constructing dams was my long shot.

Cocitus23.

 

[Cocitus23]

I love it, Revolio. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Cocitus23]

OK, OK, let's raise our sights above the navel and gaze further North - to the Gold Coast in fact. I know that some of you will be disappointed that this post contains no scurrilous cough, but focuses instead on physical geography and governmental administration. Just for a change of pace.
Gold Coast Airport - fence sitter.
Now you have all driven from say Byron Bay up to Brisbane. You have passed through Tweed Heads, crossed and Tweed River, waved bye-bye to NSW and as you enter Coolangatta been greeted by the sign into Queensland. And then after a few more kilometres drive further north you see the sign pointing to Gold Coast Airport, just on your left, sitting nice and securely in Queensland, just where it should be. Because we all know that the NSW/Qld border runs east-west from the Pacific to the Dig Tree, don't we? The only trouble is that it doesn't.

Instead, it follows the watershed of the Tweed River. Now the whole area is so damn flat that definition of that watershed can have been no easy matter back when it was all just swamp. In any case, the line does a very sneaky thing. In the middle of Coolangatta it does a right hand turn and heads north, parallel to the highway, and cuts right through the airport terminal and across the runway. Now I bet that many of you heading up for your Quuensland holidays would have been shocked to know that you had in fact landed in NSW, but that's what happened.

Looking at the map, the border is shown as a straight line right across the airport. Now it can't have been that way in nature, and moreover, civil works around the airport would have certainly disrupted drainage patterns, so that now some NSW water goes to Queensland, and vice versa. But at some stage the two state ministries must have got together and settled on a straight line for simplicity. But was this done before or after the airport was there?

I know that federal regulations largely control air transport, but I do wonder if there are any aspects of airport administration which become complicated because of this two state situation. You can bet that Joh would have loved exploiting the situation. Perhaps someone up there can tell us if it has any impact at all.

I know of no other airport in Australia, Canada or USA which straddles a border like this. The closest I can think of is CVG - Cincinnati Ohio. The airport actually sits (entirely) in neighbouring Kentucky.


Back in the 1970s I spent time with the US government on dam operations in the American West. There is a similar situation at Hoover Dam, just out of Las Vegas. The dam blocks the Colorado River, so its left abutment is in Arizona while the right is in Nevada. Now there is a one hour time difference across the river. Just imagine how the CFMEU would exploit that to get a double lunch-time. Hey, maybe the grass mowing guys at OOL are doing exactly that during summertime now.


Cocitus23.

 

[Buzzard]

Fabulous thread Cocitus23, but after reading post #5 I had to read your handle again. My brain didn'y see the second "c" first time around :shock:

 

[robd]

Fabulous thread Cocitus23, but after reading post #5 I had to read your handle again. My brain didn'y see the second "c" first time around :shock:

Ha ha. I did a double take on it too

 

[Boca68]

Ok, not quite an airport anecdote, but something from my childhood that I recently revisited with my Uncles and his friends. Quite amazing, I thought.

Growing up in Northern Victoria, Yarrawonga, in the 70's, I had often heard stories of the exploits of WWII pilots from the nearby Tocumwal airbase. Perhaps 60kms away from Yarrawonga. Tocumwal was a major training base for USAAF pilots and US Army Paratroopers from early 1943 till wars end. As well as RAAF fighter pilot training. Even nowadays, you can visit and see the remants of the extent of the base. Being a history buff, always found it intriguing.

As a background, I first heard the 2 stories from my fathers brother. Who passed some 15 years ago. One was of an unfortunate incident involving a US Paratrooper caught on the aerilons of C-47 during a practice jump nearby. The pilots, hoping he was still alive, but unable to get loose, decided to fly to nearby Lake Mulwala, created only a few years before the war, hoping they could cut him loose on to the relative safety on the water at a low altitude. The eye witness accounts of my 2 Uncles, 1 who was about 17 at the time and the other who was about 6 or 7 is amazing in its clarity. Especially , as I asked the question almost 2 decades apart. Not knowing until recently, that they both witnessed it.
The C-47, flew in low from the north-east, but as the lake is filled with dead trees, obviously not knowing the area, it was not possible to cut the trooper loose. This is where my Uncles, fishing on the northern edge of the lake first spot the plane. As my younger Uncle, said to me, it looked like the plane had streamers out the back. It was only after a few seconds they realised that there was a man flapping in wind also. Being just kids, what did they do? Jump on thier bikes and try to follow the plane. It circled back around twice. Obviously , by then the pilot realises that the best approach over the lake is from a westerly direction. Then, both my uncles, recall tome the same story, 15 years apart. the C-47 flew over the lake from the west at an altitude of about 40 to 50 feet. It was a still summers afternoon. December 1944, they recall. The trooper was cut loose and fell into the lake. About this time the several others were watching him fall. But, it took almost 2 weeks before they found the body, despite pinpointing the location of his fall. Even with several hundred of the Troopers unit turning up the next day to help in the search. Most likely, he was dead before being cut loose.
The second incident, was September 1945, just after the peace with Japan was declared. Obviously thousands were de-mobbing. A local Yarrawonga identity was returning his plane , a Mk XVIII Spitfire, I'm led to believe to Tocumwal. But this is an amatuers guess, I think. Lets just say a Spitfire. He has quite a history and upon reading his military records, was in fact, an ace. With 5.5 confirmed kills flying over New Guinea, New Britian and various Indonesian islands. The legend is he flew his plane under the Yarrawonga bridge, not once, but twice! Now, having grown up there. I kept thinking, that's impossible. Clearance would be 20, maybe 25 feet when the lake is full. It was only this year upon speaking to the younger uncle in above story and seeing some articles from the local newspaper at the time, I relaised, that at the time, the lake was for the 1st time ever, lowered. Happens every few years now, but that would increase the clearance to perhaps 45 to 50 feet. Still scary, but now plausible, I think. And as I've heard it form 4 or 5 different sources at different times, with the occasional embellishment, but generally the same , can only conclude that its true. Unfortunately, the local identity passed away some 12 years ago. I would hve loved to interview him, not only about this incident, but his career in general.

I'm keen to keep following up these stories from around my home town , certainly before the orators are gone.

 

[Cocitus23]

Thanks, Boca68. Intriguing stories. I know the Tocumwal / Yarrawonga area quite well, having played golf up there. In fact, I played at Black Bull (new course) just recently. I also have a good mental image of Lake Mulwala and all the dead trees. Frankly, I think they are an eyesore. What do you think? I was at a dams conference up there about 10 years ago, when the lake was drawn right down because of the drought. I asked why they were not taking advantage of the low water level to clear out all the dead trees, and was told it was an environmental issue - the dead trees provided roosts for the birdlife. Well, maybe. But it sure sounded to me like rationalisation to cover doing nothing.

As for flying under the Yarrawonga bridge, difficult to believe, but if witnesses attest to it, who am I to say nonsense. In any case, the pilot must have been crazy.

Cocitus23.

 

[Cocitus23]

That's well spotted, Buzzard. It comes from a school boy joke. Back in 1957 I was studying Latin, Virgil's Aeneid, Book 6, in which is mentioned the River Cocitus which separated Heaven from Hell. In any case, I had to write up the homework on the blackboard and I deliberately omitted the second c just to see what reaction, if any I would get from the religious brother who was teaching us. The 23 was just randomly tacked on in honour of a former brown and gold (now red and white) warrior.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Because we all know that the NSW/Qld border runs east-west from the Pacific to the Dig Tree, don't we?

Now although you haven't convinced about the Qld/NSW border (you got it the wrong way around) being at the dig tree (Cameron Corner perhaps?), in keeping with the Burke and Wills and an airport theme, I do have a photo of the carpark sign at the dig tree. I don't have it with me so I'm very much relying on my fairly poor memory, but it said something like cars $2, planes $11 :shock:..........no planes were parked there when we visited, but that would have been a fun pic. So poor old Burke and Wills camped at Tullamarine early on and camped at a very different airport just before their tragic deaths later on. Does that make them aviation pioneers?

EDIT: found this photo on line of the said sign at this website (it's not my photo) and both vehicle and plane is $11!

 

[Cocitus23]

Hey, Swanning_it, I love it. A few things:
1. The Dig Tree / Cameron Corner. Of course, you are correct. I just couldn't think of the correct name as I wrote, and I threw in The Dig Tree just as a metaphor for 'somewhere in the vast interior'.
2. The parking fee, $11, whether for car or plane. How quirky is that? And why the very particular number eleven, rather than a more rounded ten, or even fifteen? It makes you suspect that the town clerk is an aficionado of prime numbers.
3. IATA code. One would hope that the same town clerk would apply for and be granted the 3-letter code DIG for the landing strip. But, damn! I just checked, and it has already been granted to Diqing airport at (wait for it) Shangri-La in China. And I didn't even know that there was such a place as Shangri-La. I just thought it was somewhere mythological.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

1. The Dig Tree / Cameron Corner. Of course, you are correct. I just couldn't think of the correct name as I wrote, and I threw in The Dig Tree just as a metaphor for 'somewhere in the vast interior'. Yep, I guessed that was the case and it did tie the change in direction (OOL) with the first post very nicely!
2. The parking fee, $11, whether for car or plane. How quirky is that? And why the very particular number eleven, rather than a more rounded ten, or even fifteen? It makes you suspect that the town clerk is an aficionado of prime numbers. Easier than $10.50 I guess! I suspect it may have been $10 then someone went and upset the apple cart and introduced a GST..........that town clerk I believe, saved the day by realising it was cheaper to change the sign to $11 than risk a massive budget blowout! That same town clerk probably received the key to the city (er, pub perhaps) in gratitude.
3. IATA code. One would hope that the same town clerk would apply for and be granted the 3-letter code DIG for the landing strip. But, damn! I just checked, and it has already been granted to Diqing airport at (wait for it) Shangri-La in China. And I didn't even know that there was such a place as Shangri-La. I just thought it was somewhere mythological. And here I was thinking it's a hotel chain. I wonder if I spend too much time travelling. :shock:

 

[JohnM]

Hey, Swanning_it, I love it. A few things:
1. The Dig Tree / Cameron Corner. Of course, you are correct. I just couldn't think of the correct name as I wrote, and I threw in The Dig Tree just as a metaphor for 'somewhere in the vast interior'.
2. The parking fee, $11, whether for car or plane. How quirky is that? And why the very particular number eleven, rather than a more rounded ten, or even fifteen? It makes you suspect that the town clerk is an aficionado of prime numbers.
3. IATA code. One would hope that the same town clerk would apply for and be granted the 3-letter code DIG for the landing strip. But, damn! I just checked, and it has already been granted to Diqing airport at (wait for it) Shangri-La in China. And I didn't even know that there was such a place as Shangri-La. I just thought it was somewhere mythological.

The parking fee is $10 + GST . And here's the strip, replete with cow-pats: