What a place to visit, the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre and camp. Just don’t do it when it’s extremely windy, as was our stay, so much so we couldn’t cook on the BBQ or inside as the gas would go out! There goes the hot water – all good as only staying for 1 night. You just have to make sure that you have enough food to carry with you that doesn’t require cooking. In our case, we had bread and a toasty maker and had that for dinner instead.
The Camp
This was a donation camp, and you can camp to the east of the aerodrome itself. They had toilets in the building just past the Museum. An information shed with pamphlets you can take away with you. The best part is the good old dump point. We didn’t use it but nice to know it was there. All the necessary things you need on the road…
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Plenty of open spaces, green grass and a few trees to park under. We did have to move our caravan into a position of least resistance to the wind! It was also hot so seeking shade was a must – we failed miserably on that front – parked under shade but the sun moved in the wrong direction. I think we need to get a compass. The ones on our phones are useless.
It was another hot, hot day and night and the wind on top of that kept us inside. We did try and sit outside for a bit but the dust blowing around made it a bit too uncomfortable, if ya know what I mean.
We were the first to arrive and by the end of the night there were 5 of us.
Well worth staying and is about 1.9 kms from town.
Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre
Since the very early days of Australian Aviation, Nhill has played an important part as a refueling station and later, during World War II a training facility for the Royal Australian Air Force.
From the beginning of aviation in Nhill in 1919 when a 100 hp De Havilland DH6 aeroplane landed on the Nhill Racecourse, the history of flight in Nhill has involved the community as much as the aircraft and the people who flew them. In 1930 Amy Johnson landed in Nhill during her record-breaking solo flight from England to Australia. WOW, who would have thought we would end up in a place like this.
In 1940 the Royal Australian Airforce established a training base at Nhill, which by 1945 had seen well over 10,000 service men and women live, work and train.
Today the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre is very unique in that it is situated on the original site of the RAAF training base and provides a glimpse of those times and life through informative displays and memorabilia including the four main training aircraft stationed at the base during WWII; an Avro Anson aircraft currently being restored, a Wirraway, Tiger Moth and Link Trainer all in working order.
They use this airport today and too windy for us to do the walking trail showing the displays. We will certainly check it all out on our next visit.
We wandered over to the toilets and saw the Heritage Centre was closed. However, this guy was inside doing the paperwork, saw us struggling in the wind (I’m sure he took pity on us) and let us in, including Shadow. Wow what a wealth of knowledge this guy has. He was great to talk to. Told me about the clothing on the female in the cabinet who was still alive today. She is about 94 and apparently, they wanted to do an article on her, thinking it would only take 5 mins, and she kept them there for over 1/2 hour – good on her I say. At 94 you can do anything. One of the other uniforms donated belonged to another person who was still alive as well. They must be very proud.
Vince was able to have a go in the first flight simulator built around 1929 and still working! He loved it although he needs a hell of a lot more lessons before getting into a real pilot seat for sure…
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Nhill
Nhill has a lake and was part of a swamp. They top it up with boar water when it starts to get low. Back in the day it would dry out as the swamp was porous. We didn’t have time to explore it so saving for next time as well.
Interesting fact – Nhill was the first town to have electricity after Melbourne.
Some more history for you.
Early in aviation history the editor of the Nhill Free Press, Fred McKenzie, successfully argued that Nhill should become an important refueling location on the flight from Melbourne to Adelaide. As a result the Nhill aerodrome was visited by such famous aviators as Bert Hinkler, Charles Butler, Charles Kingsford Smith, Amy Johnson and Nancy Bird.
Nhill hosted the first East-West Air Race from Sydney to Perth in 1929 and the Brisbane-Adelaide centenary race in 1936. During World War II it was the site of a Royal Australian Air Force Base which resulted in approximately 10,000 Air Force personnel being trained at the base between 1941-1946.
Today the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre tells the story of the local aviation history with displays and memorabilia, including the restoration of an Avro Anson and a very early example of a flight simulator. In 2018 it added to its collection when a very rare restored Wirraway – the plane was used to train pilots during World War II, was added to the collection. It was constructed from literally dozens of old, broken Wirraways by Aircraft Engineer, Ben Sorenson. It is open 10.00 am – 4.00 pm weekends. For more information check out the Aviation Heritage Centre website.
Let us know what you think in the comments. I have way more pics too. I just can’t help myself…
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Enjoy ……
