Qualla: Ceduna Airport

Ceduna Airport: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit paddynapper, CC BY-SA 2.0. Before there were roads worth the name across this country, there was the mail plane. In 1928, the Civil Aviation Branch carved an aerodrome out of the scrub two kilometres east of Ceduna, not for the town's sake but for the route - the new transcontinental airmail service stitching Adelaide to Perth across nearly two thousand kilometres of nothing. Ceduna was a place to come down, take on fuel, and climb back into the enormous sky. Almost a century later, it still is.

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Image: paddynapper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ceduna Airport: A Stop in the Long Hop

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0. The early airmail and passenger services flown by West Australian Airways faced one merciless problem: distance. The leg between the eastern states and Western Australia ran across the Nullarbor and the empty Far West Coast, beyond the reach of any single tank of fuel. Ceduna bec...

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Image: Bahnfrend | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ceduna Airport: Six Names on a Roadside Stone

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit paddynapper, CC BY-SA 2.0. The airfield's most sombre chapter came in wartime. On 17 January 1942, a Lockheed Hudson of No. 14 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, crashed moments after taking off from Ceduna. It was one of four aircraft that had set down to refuel on the way to RAAF Base Pearce in Wester...

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Image: paddynapper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ceduna Airport: The Boy Who Flew Loops

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit paddynapper, CC BY-SA 2.0. Ceduna also gave aviation something joyful. On Christmas Day in 1938, the aerobatic pilot Chris Sperou was born in the town. He grew into one of the finest flyers Australia has produced - winner of the Australian Aerobatic Championship thirteen times and a competitor in five Worl...

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Image: paddynapper | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ceduna Airport: Still on the Schedule

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit paddynapper, CC BY-SA 2.0. The airfield never fell silent. In 2003, Rex Airlines brought Saab 340 turboprops onto the Adelaide-Ceduna run, replacing the smaller aircraft that had served before, and the regional link to the state capital held. For travellers, Ceduna remains what it always was - a small term...

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Image: paddynapper | CC BY-SA 2.0