{"id":2239,"date":"2020-08-06T14:08:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T06:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/?post_type=listing&p=2239"},"modified":"2020-08-31T23:01:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T15:01:03","slug":"meekatharra-airport-western-australia","status":"publish","type":"listing","link":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/listing\/meekatharra-airport-western-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Meekatharra Airport Western Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Meekatharra
Meekatharra Airport Western Australia<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Meekatharra Airport in Western Australia services the isolated town of Meekatharra. The airport is used by the Royal Flying Doctor Service<\/strong><\/a> and scheduled passenger flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original airfield was gravel runways east of town. In 1943, the RAAF A1 class Government Aerodrome No. 872 was built at Meekatharra as part of the Commonwealth Government’s Second World War defence program. The aerodrome was designed to take heavy bombers with two sealed runways: east-west (7000 feet \/ 2,100 metres) and south-west (5,000 feet \/ 1,500 metres). It was one of a number of landing places intended for evacuation in the event of an enemy attack on the coast. The Department of Civil Aviation took over responsibility after the War and a terminal was built in 1958. Meekatharra is used as an emergency landing place for large passenger aircraft that have to be diverted from Perth due to fog or bad weather. One such event in 1977 involved a plane carrying then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and his wife Tammy, who was heard to describe the place as ‘the end of the earth’, a description which stuck. In 1993 the Shire of Meekatharra took over the airport operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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