Background to Bankstown Airport

Location

The airfield lies on the east bank of the George River, 3.5 miles west of Bankstown by road, a western suburb of Sydney. Liverpool, N.S.W. lies 4 miles to the west of the field by road. The airfield is 25 feet above mean sea level; the control building is in the centre of the northern side of the landing area. The landing area comprises a grass surface, liable to becoming boggy when wet, with two runs NE/SW and NE/SE both with a maximum length of 2000 yards. The station had 24 aircraft pens and 12 hard standings with six bellman type and two B1 type hangers by the end of 1945.
 

Beginnings

The site was first suggested for a civil airport in 1929, but it was to be 1939 before work began the site being developed for the Royal Australian Air Force.

Work on the airfield and buildings proceeded throughout 1940, the station becoming R.A.A.F Bankstown on December 2nd 1940; No.2 Aircraft Park moved from R.A.A.F Laverton, Victoria to become the first unit to operate from Bankstown on December 9th 1940. The station saw the formation of several R.A.A.F units and the establishment of a detachment of the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF), they left at the beginning of 1942 when the United States Army Air Force arrived at Bankstown.

USAAF units to be based at Bankstown include the 39th, 4th and 41st Squadrons of the 35th Pursuit Group and 7 squadron of the 49th Pursuit Group.

DeHavilland aircraft had opened a factory on the field in 1942, occupying the area on the south of the landing area.
 

RN Control

The advance party of MONAB 2 arrived at R.A.A.F Bankstown in early December 1944, and began erecting Corsair and Martinet airframes. The station was transferred to RN control January 27th 1945 and commissioned as Royal Naval Air Station Bankstown, H.M.S. Nabberley on the 29th. Personnel being accommodated on the airfield and at a site on Endeavour Road. Bankstown

H.M.S. Nabberley and MONAB 2 paid off at Bankstown March 31st 1946, the station returning to R.A.A.F control.
 

Post War
Bankstown was developed as a civil airfield. permanent runways were laid in the 1950s and the airport operated a variety of business services, aircraft maintenance and services for private light aircraft.