Qualla: Forrest Airport https://qualla.com/forrest-airport en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/f/e/0/forrest-airport-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Forrest Airport https://qualla.com/forrest-airport Forrest Airport: Introduction https://qualla.com/forrest-airport/ Photo credit Greg Barrington, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1929, the trip from Perth to Adelaide by air took sixteen hours, and the men who flew it needed somewhere to put the plane down at the exact middle of nowhere. That somewhere is Forrest. There was no town here, no road worth the name, no water to speak of - just a flat scrape of the Nullarbor Plain, halfway between two capital cities and a thousand kilometres of treeless limestone in every direction. The Department of Civil Aviation cleared a runway anyway. Then they built a hostel, dug for water, and waited for the mail plane.

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Image: Greg Barrington | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/f/e/0/forrest-airport-wp/qfe0-forrest-airport-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Forrest Airport: The Mail Had to Get Through https://qualla.com/forrest-airport/ Photo credit Greg Barrington, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sir Norman Brearley's West Australian Airways had won the Commonwealth contract to fly mail, passengers and freight between Perth and Adelaide, and the company ordered four de Havilland DH.66 Hercules trimotors from England to do it. Hangars went up at Maylands in Perth, at Paraf...

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Image: Greg Barrington | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/f/e/0/forrest-airport-wp/qfe0-forrest-airport-the-mail-had-to-get-through.mp3 0:06 2 full Forrest Airport: A Speck Beside the Longest Straight https://qualla.com/forrest-airport/ Photo credit Greg Barrington, CC BY-SA 3.0. Forrest sits beside the Trans-Australian Railway, whose track here runs dead straight for 478 kilometres - the longest stretch of straight railway on Earth. Passengers on the Indian Pacific still glance up from the window as the airfield slides past, a sudden geometry of runway a...

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Image: Greg Barrington | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/f/e/0/forrest-airport-wp/qfe0-forrest-airport-a-speck-beside-the-longest-straight.mp3 0:06 3 full Forrest Airport: War, and the Long Quiet After https://qualla.com/forrest-airport/ Photo credit Greg Barrington, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Second World War came, the Royal Australian Air Force took the field over as a transit stop, a refuelling point, and a communications base on the vulnerable east-west corridor. Aircraft crossing the continent leaned on Forrest the way ships once leaned on a lighthouse. A...

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Image: Greg Barrington | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/f/e/0/forrest-airport-wp/qfe0-forrest-airport-war-and-the-long-quiet-after.mp3 0:06 4 full Forrest Airport: Still Open, Still Essential https://qualla.com/forrest-airport/ Photo credit Greg Barrington, CC BY-SA 3.0. Forrest never quite closed. The runway is still graded, the historic hangar still stands ready to shelter a light aircraft from the desert sun, and fuel is still here for those who need it. The Royal Flying Doctor Service uses Forrest as a lifeline waypoint - in country this empt...

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Image: Greg Barrington | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/f/e/0/forrest-airport-wp/qfe0-forrest-airport-still-open-still-essential.mp3 0:06 5 full