Qualla: Manbulloo Airfield https://qualla.com/manbulloo-airfield en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:27 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/v/q/h/manbulloo-airfield-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Manbulloo Airfield https://qualla.com/manbulloo-airfield Manbulloo Airfield: Introduction https://qualla.com/manbulloo-airfield/ Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. From the air today, the only evidence that Manbulloo was ever a wartime bomber base is a faint geometric impression in the earth: the northwest-to-southeast line of a former runway, now repurposed as an access road running through rows of mango trees. The plantation was established in 1972, making Manbulloo home to the first commercial mango operation in the Northern Territory. Its owner, Manbulloo Limited, exports mangoes around the world. But for roughly eighteen months in 1942 and 1943, the same ground served a very different purpose — launching B-24 Liberators into the skies over the Japanese-controlled Dutch East Indies.

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

]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/v/q/h/manbulloo-airfield-wp/qvqh-manbulloo-airfield-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Manbulloo Airfield: Built in Weeks https://qualla.com/manbulloo-airfield/ Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. When the Pacific War came to Australia's doorstep in early 1942, the urgency of building new airfields was absolute. Works at Manbulloo were initially undertaken by the 43rd Engineer Regiment of the US Army beginning in April 1942. The Allied Works Council completed them, and the...

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]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/v/q/h/manbulloo-airfield-wp/qvqh-manbulloo-airfield-built-in-weeks.mp3 0:06 2 full Manbulloo Airfield: The 380th Bomb Group https://qualla.com/manbulloo-airfield/ Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. The B-24 Liberators of the 529th and 531st Bombardment Squadrons — part of the 380th Bomb Group — arrived at Manbulloo in late April 1943, having just come from the United States. Their headquarters were at Fenton Airfield, further north, but the squadrons were dispersed precisel...

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]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/v/q/h/manbulloo-airfield-wp/qvqh-manbulloo-airfield-the-380th-bomb-group.mp3 0:06 3 full Manbulloo Airfield: What the Earth Remembers https://qualla.com/manbulloo-airfield/ Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. After the war, the airfield was abandoned. Today, from aerial photography, the second runway — oriented roughly north-northwest to south-southeast — is faintly visible. A few roads that may have been part of the original airfield infrastructure can be traced. No wartime buildings...

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]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/v/q/h/manbulloo-airfield-wp/qvqh-manbulloo-airfield-what-the-earth-remembers.mp3 0:06 4 full Manbulloo Airfield: Mangoes and Memory https://qualla.com/manbulloo-airfield/ Photo credit Turkmenistan.airlines.frontview.arp.jpg: elfuser derivative work: Elfuser (talk), Public domain. There is something quintessentially Northern Territory about Manbulloo's transformation. A wartime facility repurposed first for cattle, then for mangoes; a runway that became a farm road; a heritage listing for an operations centre now surrounded by fruit trees. The landscape do...

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]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/v/q/h/manbulloo-airfield-wp/qvqh-manbulloo-airfield-mangoes-and-memory.mp3 0:06 5 full