RAAF Base Curtin

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RAAF Base Curtin, also sometimes RAAF Curtin[1] (Template:Comma separated entries) is a joint use Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) military air base and civil airport located Template:Convert southeast[2] of the town of Derby, Western 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 by Prime Minister Bob Hawke.[3][4] The Template:Convert[5] base was activated twice by the RAAF between 1988 and 2013.[4] It was activated again in 2016 as part of Exercise Northern Shield.[6]

File:Two B-2 bombers and two RAAF F-35As over RAAF Base Curtin in July 2022.jpg
Two USAF B-2 Spirit bombers and two RAAF F-35A Lightning II fighters over RAAF Base Curtin in 2022

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.[7] However the centre was reopened in April 2010 to house around sixty Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers whose applications were suspended.[8]

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.[9]

In 2016 and 2017 the Australian Government announced that facilities at Curtin would receive a A$100 to A$200 million upgrade,[10] in addition to a range of other defence facilities in Western Australia.[11]

Climate

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See also

References

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  3. ↑ New RAAF Base Opened Australian Aviation issue 46 September 1988 page 8
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  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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