Jervis Bay Airfield is a military

aerodrome An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes inc ...

in the

Jervis Bay Territory The Jervis Bay Territory (; "JBT") is an internal states and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. It was established in 1915 by the transfer of jurisdiction from the state of New South Wales to the federal Commonwealth of Australia ...

in Australia. It is the only aerodrome in the territory and is located about east of

Sussex Inlet Sussex Inlet is a town in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the west bank of the waterway called Sussex Inlet, which divides New South Wales from the Jervis Bay Territory. The town lies within the City of Sho ...

; and about south of

Jervis Bay Village Jervis Bay Village is a village in the Jervis Bay Territory, Australia. HMAS ''Creswell'' Royal Australian Navy base is located in the village. Apart from the navy base there is an Aboriginal community in the village. It is the largest settleme ...

and HMAS ''Creswell''. It was opened in 1941 as a

satellite airfield Satellite airfields are landing strips not regarded as main airfields as such but must be taken as a substitute in one way to a larger nearby airfield. The way this can be done may vary such as the allocation of flight paths and other functions t ...

Royal Australian Air Force The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal Air force, aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the Governor-Gener ...

Base

Nowra Nowra () is a city in the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated po ...

(now HMAS ''Albatross''). It was primarily used to support torpedo training by No. 6 Operational Training Unit RAAF and search and rescue operations during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. During 1945 it was home to the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

Mobile Naval Air Base The Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation (MNAO) was the shore-based component of the naval air logistics organisation. This comprised two types of units, a Mobile Operational Naval Air Base (MONAB) and a Transportable Aircraft Maintenance Yard (T ...

MONAB V ( HMS ''Nabswick'') and several

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

squadrons of the

British Pacific Fleet The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War. It was formed from aircraft carriers, other surface warships, submarines and supply vessels of the RN and British Commonwealth ...

. The airfield was transferred to the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

(RAN) in 1948. It continued to be used as a base for the RAN's

GAF Jindivik The GAF Jindivik is a radio-controlled target drone produced by the Australian Government Aircraft Factories (GAF). The name is from an Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal Australian word meaning "the hunted one". Two manually-controlled prototyp ...

pilotless target aircraft. Today the RAN's British Aerospace MQM-107E ''Kalkara'' Flight is based at the airfield, along with the RAN School of Ship Survivability and Safety that has fire and damage control (flooding) training facilities.

References

Airports in territories of Australia Jervis Bay Territory {{Australia-mil-stub

See also

References