by John Horne

In September 2025, Richmond RAAF Base marked its centenary with a spectacular two-day air show featuring the full range of modern RAAF aircraft. Heritage aircraft from 100 Squadron also took to the skies. The event was so popular that admission tickets quickly sold out.

A century ago, before Blacktown became the vast suburban hub it is today, the district was largely open countryside. Its flat and empty landscape provided ideal space for airfields, as well as for flying aeroplanes, model aircraft, kites and gliders.

The world’ s first heavier than air powered flight was achieved in the United States by Orville Wright on 18 March 1903. Just seven years later, the first aeroplane flight in Australia took place in Victoria. On 3 November 1911, Parramatta dentist William Ewart Hart flew a Bristol Boxkite over Blacktown, landing his aircraft the same day in one of Mr Best’ s paddocks near Seven Hills railway station.

As flying became part of everyday life for Blacktown residents, the area witnessed many flights, landings and, inevitably, a few crashes. During the First World War( 1914-1918), young men from the Shire of Blacktown served in the Australian Flying Corps( AFC), then a branch of the Australian Army. At the same time, the NSW Government established the NSW Aviation School near Clarendon to train AFC pilots. These early trainees frequently flew over parts of Blacktown, drawing crowds of curious onlookers. In 1925, the school became Richmond RAAF

Base, celebrating its centenary just last month.

Famous flights and Royal visitors In 1920, the pioneering Smith Brothers flew their Vickers Vimy bomber to Clarendon, where it captured the imagination of Blacktown residents. Having travelled over 17,000 kilometres, the aircraft’ s arrival was nothing short of a marvel. Some locals even caught the train to Clarendon to see the plane up close and meet the intrepid pilots.

That same year, Edward, Prince of Wales, was treated to an aerial display as his Royal Train passed through Blacktown en route from Parramatta to Windsor. Aircraft from Clarendon, piloted by Lieutenant Le Grice and Tom Linn, escorted the train to the delight of locals. Newspaper reports noted that Lieutenant Le Grice,“ did everything to the train except fly under it.”

Joy flights and civil aviation The early 1920s also saw the rise of joy flights. On 12 February 1921, the Nepean Times reported that O’ Dea and Moody had taken locals for flights at Rooty Hill in the morning, before flying on to St Marys in the afternoon. Lieutenant P H Moody, a former RAF Hendon test pilot, teamed up with businessman O’ Dea to run the venture. Other aviation entrepreneurs soon followed, including Robinson( Aeroplanes) Ltd and Wilfred Kingsford Smith, who regularly brought paying passengers on flights over Western Sydney.

Gliding also became popular. In June 1931, around fifty members of gliding clubs camped at Doonside for a long weekend, making numerous flights.

Getting airborne required considerable effort, gliders were dragged uphill by teams of people then launched downhill on long wires, sometimes assisted by winches powered by motor-car engines.

Air League and community involvement One of Blacktown’ s oldest youth organisations, the Australian Air League, was founded in 1938 and held its first meetings at Blacktown Public School. The League has trained countless young people in aviation and today operates from its own property on Kildare Road, where aircraft have often been displayed.

Wartime contributions During the Second World War( 1939-1945), hundreds of local men and women joined the RAAF and the Women’ s Australian Auxiliary Air Force. The Shire of Blacktown also became home to three important wartime airfields:

1. RAAF Mount Druitt. Built in 1942 on what is now Whalan Reserve. Initially a dispersal airfield, it soon developed into a vital aircraft maintenance base, servicing both single and twin-engine aircraft.

2. RAAF Schofields. Established in 1942 and expanded in 1943-44. British carrier aircraft were stationed here during the arrival of the British Pacific Fleet. The site became HMS Napthorpe, then HMS Nabstock, and later HMAS Nirimba.

3. Wallgrove( Bungarribee) Aerodrome. Constructed in 1942 near the old colonial mansion Bungarribee. Its east-west runway stretched from Holbeche Road

across to what is now part of the Western Sydney Parklands at Doonside.

Changing perceptions of flight From joy flights in the 1920s and 30s to mass military aviation during the Second World War, Blacktown residents developed a deep connection with flying. Post war air shows at Schofields and the accessibility of cheaper commercial flights only strengthened this.

Today, with skies filled by helicopters, passenger jets, private aircraft and even drones, aviation has become so routine that few people pause to look up in wonder. Yet Blacktown’ s aviation story reminds us how extraordinary these developments once were- and how central the district has been to Australia’ s history of flight.

The opening of NSW Aviation School at Clarendon, August 1916. In 1925 it became the RAAF Base Richmond.