Sydney Airport goes back a long way, like aviation in Australia in general. Whilst early aviators tended to fly out of Penrith, Parramatta or Richmond (Clarendon) at first, a site closer to Sydney itself was selected near the Ascot race course, on flat marshland adjoining the Cooks River. To the east was extensive swampland and a mill, to the north was a brickworks. To the west was market gardens. To the south was the river, more swamp and Botany Bay, of course.
I'm unsure exactly when this tower was built but sometime in the 1930s would be close.
