Daniel Leahy  Bowen

Photos and text by Daniel Leahy from his September 2001 visits.

The wartime airfield has been updated and is now the airfield for the small town of Bowen. In a building there were model displays showing the Battle of Midway, the Bowen Airfield and the Bowen Flying Boat Maintenance Base. I believe these models could have now been relocated to the regional museum in the town (which was closed for the day when I got to it). There is an RAAF Catalina maintenance base (ramp, large concrete slab remaining). Also, the current airport was used as an RAAF field, and many of the pubs in town were once airmen's messes.

The pictures are of two bomb stores. The first is in the backyard of a 'dog kennel' The second is in some scrub not too far from the first. Both are not too far away from the current airfield.

The following RAAF units are listed as being located at the Bowen airfield:
9 Sqn  
Jan 13, 1943 - Dec 3, 1944
22 OBU  
Aug 1, 1942 - Oct 10, 1943
1 Aircraft Performace Unit (Det)  
March 1944 - August 1944
114 Air-Sea Resue Unit (Det)  
Aug 6, 1945 - Aug 31, 1945
Chemical Research Unit  
Aug 15, 1944 - Dec 24, 1945
42/55 Radar Station  
Mar 5, 1943 - Apr 24, 1946

 


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