Cunderdin Airfield - WA

Cunderdin Airfield was constructed early in World War II as an elementary training school for ab initio pilots for the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). The facility comprised a large airfield, hangars and technical huts together with a main base camp further to the east. Towards the end of the war, after sufficient pilots had been trained for both EATS and RAAF requirements in the South West Pacific, the airfield was used as an operational base for heavy bombers in connection with the campaign against the Japanese occupied Netherlands East Indies.Following the war the base was used as a migrant camp and in 1957 the Commonwealth began disposing of some assets at the base and ownership of some of the buildings passed into private hands including the Gliding Club of WA which purchased Building 109. The original airfield comprised three main areas – the Movement Area, the Hangar Area and the Camp Area. The Camp Area is no longer a part of the airfield and now houses the Agricultural College. In 1992 the remaining land at the airfield (but excluding land for the Junior Agricultural High School and some other adjustments) was transferred to the Shire of Cunderdin under a special agreement with the Commonwealth.