RAAF Base Curtin, also sometimes RAAF Curtin is a joint use
Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
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, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
(RAAF)
military air base and
civil airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...
located southeast
of the town of
Derby on the north coast of
Western Australia in Australia. As it is one of the RAAF's three
bare bases, no RAAF units are permanently based at Curtin and it is maintained by a small caretaker staff during peacetime.
The base is named in honour of former
Prime Minister John Curtin.
History
RAAF Curtin was the first new major military airfield to be built in Australia since
World War II. Construction on the base began in 1983 and it was opened on 11 June 1988.
The base was activated twice by the RAAF between 1988 and 2013.
It was activated again in 2016 as part of Exercise Northern Shield.

From the late 1990s the base operated as
Curtin Immigration Reception and Processing Centre, an Australian Government immigration
detention centre, which closed in September 2002. However the centre was reopened in April 2010 to house around sixty
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
n and
Afghan asylum seekers whose applications were suspended.
In 2007 direct flights recommenced between
Perth and Derby (RAAF Curtin) for the first time since
Ansett Australia stopped the service in 1992. However, the flights ceased in February 2016.
In 2016 and 2017 the Australian Government announced that facilities at Curtin would receive a A$100 to A$200 million upgrade, in addition to a range of other defence facilities in Western Australia.
Climate
See also
*
List of airports in Western Australia
*
List of Royal Australian Air Force installations
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtain
Royal Australian Air Force bases
Kimberley airports
Immigration to Australia
Airports established in 1988
Curtin
Curtin
Military installations in Western Australia