Airfields in the swamp

This is the second part of a story about 1942 wartime plans to use airfields here in West Gippsland to defend the La Trobe Valley and Melbourne from air attack.

I mentioned in the first part that Michael Bush, a member of the Vintage Military Vehicles Corps, told me about the World War II airfield at Monomeith. I’d never heard of it. Nor had I known that the old airfield at Pakenham was built in World War II and that there was a satellite field at Longwarry.

His information led to me finding out a little about the Greenhills airfield the RAAF established at Pakenham. That happened in 1942, when things were still very grim in the Pacific. I won’t repeat the things I said about the strategic position we were in, but we were paddling hard to stay afloat at the time.

In May 1942 an inspection of the Swamp area to try to locate potential airfields for our defence was carried out. Dispersal areas were considered at Hampton Park, Heath Hill, Five Ways, Pakenham (Greenhills) and Tynong. These dispersal areas were fields spaced close enough to put up a united force but far enough apart to minimise the effect of enemy air attacks. They were also fields where the planes would be dispersed and thus present a more difficult target at each airfield

The group also looked at maintenance facilities at Longwarry and Cranbourne.

The one Michael mentioned, though, was at Monomeith, sometimes referred to as Bayles airstrip.

There were to be four runways built at Monomeith though only two were completed. In the Greenhills airfield story I told of the difficulties of hiding from enemy aircraft the allied planes using the field.

At Monomeith the problem was even worse. The land was flat and wide open. Six ‘possies’ were located under rows of pine trees, hardly any way to hide a plane. Two were in small patches of eucalypts. One was in a private garden. One was even partly hidden in a reconstructed house.

In March. May, June and August inspections of the various possibilities indicated that Monomeith was the best choice for a ‘parent’ airfield. In these reports there is mention of protecting the sea approaches as well, which would mean medium dive-bombers and not just interceptors. It was to be a Lend lease project and it appears that the might have US planned to put a squadron of dive bombers there.

By the end of the year the war cabinet had approved a budget of one hundred thousand pounds and the Country Roads Board had established a camp onL arrangements.

The land was part of Monomeith Park and the north-south runway led to the SW corner of the intersection of Monomeith Park Road and Spencers Road.

The north-south runway was to be 5000 feet long and the east-west runway was to be 6000 feet long, with both runways 150 feet wide. Only two of the four planned runways were built by the Country Roads Board because the strategic situation was improving throughout 1943.

The biggest problem the Allies had faced in our north through 1942 was the huge Japanese base at Rabaul. RAAF Catalinas bombed it throughout 1943 but they faced a 500 miles return trip and only in December and January were the raids increased as the Solomons campaign provided land bases much closer to Rabaul. Wisely, the Allies steadily destroyed Rabaul’s aircraft without committing to a ground attack. Rabaul was thus effectively neutralised.

On February 19 the remaining Japanese aircraft were withdrawn to Truk and two days later most of the ground crews left by ship. That ship was sunk, a crippling loss of maintenance crew.

Four months earlier General Douglas Macarthur declared that the Allies had air mastery in the South West Pacific area. This was not really true until the Japanese air fleet at Rabaul was accounted for, but Macarthur was well aware of the political value of good news.

In any case, the Department of Air began suggesting the return of land on the Swamp acquired for airfields as the tide of battle turned. In August 1943 it was decided to round off the works at Monomeith.

There followed a lengthy argument between the RAAF and the Department of Air about keeping the airstrips operational.

In April 1944 the Minister for Air ordered that the land should be returned to the owners, the Bourkes, except for the actual airstrips, which were to be fenced off. Even so, the Bourkes were allowed to have cattle inside the fenced-off areas for grazing.

Officially there were never any buildings on the Monomeith site but there might have been some storage facilities, perhaps needed during construction, though no sign remains now.

It should be said that local landowners were not too happy about the Monomeith airfield. The runways were built up well above the surrounding soil level and interfered badly with the existing drainage, and this was the source of a running argument throughout 1943-46. Those raised levels must have somehow been removed, or subsided, because the old runways are now only visible from the air.

The airfield is now commonly referred to as Bayles Airfield but I’m not sure the runways are readily available for use these days.

I went on to look for information about the dispersal airfield at Heath Hill, and the maintenance unit at Longwarry, but so far I’ve had no luck at all with those.

In the process I found out there was a prisoner of war camp at Koo Wee Rup, set up late in the war to house Italian prisoners of war, to relieve the pressure on the camp at Murchison. Because these men were described as POWs I gather none of them were simply internees.

There were 88 prisoners kept there, with one officer and ten soldiers as guards. It was a lowsecurity camp and the prisoners were driven to various farms to work during the day.

They were paid one shilling and threepence a day and were well provided for with food and clothing, etc. It all seems to have been a remarkably peaceful place.

The camp was on the Main Drain Road between Backhouse’s and Ballarto Roads, covering about three hectares and with huts brought down from the Rowville camp. It is staggering how many such facilities dotted our area during the Second World War, though most were small-scale operation.

The Koo Wee Rup POW camp wasn’t set up until October 1944 and was pulled down, and the land returned to the Einsiedels early in 1946.