Latest / Lisa & Russell / Perth's Strange History-Langley Park Airstrip - It Was Basically Our First Airport...In A Sense

Transcript

Perth's Strange History-Langley Park Airstrip - It Was Basically Our First Airport...In A Sense · Lisa & Russell

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Strange history that it's just a little bit of history.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: This is where we look at some landmarks around Perth,
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: parts of Perth. That what was more to the story
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: than you might think.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: When we were alluding to the history of Langley Park
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: right now CBD. It used to be an airt It
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: was basically our first airport in a sense it was
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and Norman really that name of course will mean something.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: To you in terms of airport.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in terms of airport. His airline, Western Australian Airways WAA, Up,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Up and Away. WAA began the first airline operations in
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Australia in nineteen twenty one, that was a year before
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Quantus and they were based at Langley Park, you see.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: In July nineteen nineteen, Norman brought two military surplus aircraft
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to Perth to demonstrate the potential of aviation. He conducted
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: a public demonstration and joy ride flights. They taking volunteers.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: There wouldn't have been as much to sea.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: From the Whacker from the Claremont Showgrounds and Lowton Park,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: which was the East Perth football ground. Initially he based
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the aircraft in a hangar next to Belmont Park racecourse,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: but he felt that was too far from the city
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: center and not suitable because it was too small, boggy
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and subject to flooding. We had the same arguments where
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: they talked about building the stadium many years later. So
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: when flying over Perth in late nineteen nineteen, he noticed
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: a regular patch of flat ground next to the river
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: weekend miss it.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: It was a nice shape, nice rectangular shape to be
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: able to land.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So very landing strip looking at extended east from Victoria Avenue,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and he inquired about using this land as an airfield.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And Michael Durak invited Breary to build a hangar at
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: the foot of his property in Adelaide Terrace. So, even
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: though it was public land and without official permission, really
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: said you're.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: On, you're on, We're on. Sneaky deal.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: There we go. I don't want to old do and
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: apologize later.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I don't want to go through the paperwork. Basically, yeah,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: so look it's and of course it was used as
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: an airfield as recently as the Red two thousand. Between
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: two thousand and six and twenty ten it was basically
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the Red Bull Airport there for the Red Bull air Race.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: And how many people used to turn up for that? Oh,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that was such a major event. Yes, became too big,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: too expensive in the end and we couldn't keep doing it,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: but yeah, no, it was. It was definitely. Yeah, that's
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the significance of Langley Park and it's why it was
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: never Can you imagine what that land would be worth
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: to a developer, It would just can't even so many
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: zeros you'd lose, you'd lose. Count Sally Bennison, who was
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Sir Norman Breally's granddaughter, was talking about what it was
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: like when they held the one hundredth anniversary of the
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: first airport back in the twenty twenty one.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: There were just no facilities, no aerodromes, there was nothing
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: for them and they had accidents where they had to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: dismantle the planes just to get them back here to
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: repair them.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: So talk about an.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Adventure, talk about an adventure, an adventure indeed wild wild where.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Yeh of airways. Rach Allen, who is from the Wa
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Royal Aero Club, he was also at the one hundredth anniversary,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: just reminding us of what airline travel was like back
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: in those days.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: What an endeavor it was back in those days with
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: timber and cloth aircraft covering, that sort of distance. Original flights,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: they could take two passengers per aircraft as long as
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: they carried the mailbags between their feet. Will probably all
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: take it a bit for granted, the convenience of aviation travel.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: How did they get the trolley down the middle?
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: There was it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I don't think that that was for latter times. So
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: there you go. There's the strange history that I think
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: many many people don't know. Some do, but many don't
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: know about Langley Park.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I think the history of air travel alone is so
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: interesting because you know, it started out like that, you know,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: taking volunteers to go for demo rids in nineteen nineteen,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and then there was that period of time where going
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: you know, by air was such an event and you
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: got all dressed up and it was and the flight
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: was amazing and everyone looked after you. I was on
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a budget airline a couple of weeks ago. We were
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: lucky to get a bottle of water, a right, we
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: had to pay for it. So yeah, things have really
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: come full circle. It's a shame. I'd love to go
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: back to those old days of it being such an
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: amazing experience.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: So if you're driving down alongside the Langley Park this morning,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: just take a glance and just take note of its significance. Yes,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and it's a strange history.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Good on your Norman's, good
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: On your Norman.