Qualla: Longreach Airport

Longreach Airport: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Qantas, the airline that now flies kangaroo-tailed jets across oceans, learned to fly from a dirt strip on the edge of Longreach. The Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services was founded in Winton in November 1920, but it was here, at this remote airfield in the central-west, that the company set up its first operational base and began stitching the vast Australian interior together by air. One of those original Qantas hangars still stands beside the runway, a corrugated-iron survivor from the dawn of an industry. For a stretch of the early twentieth century, the future of Australian aviation ran straight through this small inland town.

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Image: Public domain

Longreach Airport: The Survey That Started an Airline

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. It began with a long, dusty drive. In August 1919, a small party left Longreach to survey overland a route for competitors in the first great air race from England to Australia. Among them were Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, two pilots trained in the Australian Flying Corps duri...

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Image: Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk) | Public domain

Longreach Airport: Where Qantas Took Root

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit National Library of Australia from Canberra, Australia, Public domain. In late 1920, Fysh and McGinness, who had seen the opportunity so clearly during their survey, helped found the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, soon known to the world as QANTAS. Although the company was established at Winton, its first operational base was Lon...

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Image: National Library of Australia from Canberra, Australia | Public domain

Longreach Airport: A Procession of Pioneers

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Longreach became a waypoint for the heroes of aviation's golden age. The first overland flight across the continent, Melbourne to Darwin, passed through in 1919, flown by Captain Henry Wrigley and Sergeant Arthur Murphy in a B.E.2. In 1920 came Ray Parer and John McIntosh in an A...

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Image: Public domain

Longreach Airport: War, Decline and Return

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. In 1941 the Department of Civil Aviation opened the Longreach Aeradio station, giving pilots ground-to-air radio across the country. The next year the war arrived. For a short time in 1942, Longreach became a base for United States Army Air Forces B-17 bombers of the 93rd and 30t...

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Image: Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk) | Public domain