Certainly it is now a telecommunications unit. Or rather was.
This is the site as it is, in 2014 (Google Maps image):
Thursday, December 11, 2014
RAAF Bringelly Telecommunications Unit - and emergency landing ground?
I'll make a bold assumption here that the RAAF site at Bringelly was originally a dispersal airstrip, or possibly an "emergency landing ground"; although details of that airstrip remain sketchy. Was it built? Was it just a mown field?
Certainly it is now a telecommunications unit. Or rather was.
This is the site as it is, in 2014 (Google Maps image):
The full list of Sydney's airfields.
Certainly it is now a telecommunications unit. Or rather was.
This is the site as it is, in 2014 (Google Maps image):
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4 comments:
Bringelly was allocated & constructed...at least Partially during the dark days of 1942, when the Japanese were running amok in the Pacific. It was meant to be one of several "satellite" strips attached to Fleurs Parent strip (Kemps Creek). Others were Wallgrove, Bargo, & a couple of others. The Fleurs Parent was built to house the US Navy air arm, should needs demand. After Midway & Guadalcanal the yanks were on the move North. I don't think these strips were ever used for their intended customer, but the USAAC had some p39's housed at fleurs at one time, & Bringelly was used as a satellite/dispersal for Bankstown. Runway & hide-outs were built, but i don't know how many a/c actually used it. After WW2 the RAAF set up a remote radio receiving station, along with attendant high aerials...not a place to be landing a/c. I saw a 1949 photo, which shows the "runway" all but grassed over.
Thnaks for that detail, Russ.
As a boy growing up at Badgery’s Creek in the 1980’s, Bringelly RAAF base was an active remote receiving station during this era.
There were a substantial number of RAAF employees and their families residing and working on the base. There were approximately thirty free-standing homes built along the street leading into the base where the main large antenna tower is. There were also several large rotating beam antennas erected in the paddocks to the east of the main building infrastructure at the base.
There was a staff bar on site, which was also open to the public, although the bar’s existence was not common knowledge by the public.
My father would often take me there in the afternoon on weekends, where he would catch up with RAAF and civilian friends at the bar.
Also, there would often be quite large functions for local football and cricket teams, which were a lot of fun. There was also a full-size tennis court and a games room with pool table, table tennis and card machines. On some weekends, there was also parachutists landing in the paddock on the RAAF base, though the aircraft did not use the landing strip on the base, so I am assuming it came from Hoxton Park or Camden airfields for each drop of parachutists.
I have recently been doing some research of RAAF base Bringelly, but unfortunately there is very little available on the Internet.
I came across this small blog and wanted to comment on the good old days and memories had at RAAF base Bringelly. I wish I could re-visit the base now to see the relics of what was a great little base in its day.
Regards,
Craig March
Thanks for that extra detail, Craig.
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