It was not long after this wartime fund-raising effort that the first aeroplane to come to Tamworth arrived on September 4, 1919. The two-seater, single-engine Avro bi-plane, piloted by Captain Leslie Holden, landed on King's Paddock (now Taminda), part of the Peel River Land & Mineral Company estate.

As part of a war loan effort funds were raised by offering short flights to locals.

Fitting that the first to book a flight was Mrs Trim, licensee of the Caledonial Hotel, who had organised the previous highly successful fund-raiser. Captain Holden's aircraft had a wooden frame covered with canvas, with various parts of the plane kept in place with wire and primitive instrumentation.

The following year, on August 4,1920, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales visited Tamworth and was treated to a display of aerial acrobatics by an Avro aeroplane owned by the Australian Aircraft Company and piloted by Lt. Bartlett, which "... soared over the town at a great height and with two passengers, side-rolled, nose-dived, looped, swerved and climbed repeatedly." Certainly a new experience for Tamworth observers.

Captain Holden's inaugural landing led to early motivation to establish an airport and by 1929 Tamworth Municipal Council had come up with three possibilities - King's Paddock; or land belonging to the nearby Tamworth Jockey Club; or another nearby area belonging to local storekeeper William Thibault.

The following year a final decision was made, with 187 acres being resumed as an aerodrome, occupying a large part of today's Taminda (hence the aircraft street names today - Avro, Wirraway, Lockheed, Anson, etc). The aerodrome was invested in the Tamworth Municipal Council and officially licensed in 1932.

Our first flight tragedy occurred on May 31, 1930 when a flight student and instructor were killed when their Canberra Pup aircraft, which had taken off half an hour earlier, nose-dived and crashed near the Denison Street rail-crossing, close to Barnes Street. This accident led to the closure of the Tamworth Aero Club which had formed only three days prior to organise flying instruction, develop an airport and organise an aerial pageant.

The crash was a great setback to the club, with however limited instruction from Newcastle pilots resuming after a while. Plans for Tamworth's very first Aerial Pageant were put on hold, another factor being that the famous Amy Johnson, who had just flown solo from England to Australia, was unable to attend as Guest-of-Honour.

Adastra Airlines managers, Captains Hammond and Follett, arrived flying separate Gipsy Moth aircraft on the King's Paddock landing-strip on November 3, 1930, after three hour flights from Sydney. Both were impressed with the runway. Memories of the Denison Street tragedy however reduced interest in their local pilot training.

The opportunity finally came for an Aerial Pageant in July, 1935. The prime organiser, Mr Carpenter of Carpenter's Aerial Circus, gained support from the pre-existing Tamworth Gliding Club, with a major goal of raising funds for their much-needed hangar. The Pageant, attracting around 10 000 people, was a great success, with the resulting funded hangar being erected near the Racecourse.

Fourteen different aeroplanes participated in the Pageant, which included aerial acrobatics, mock air-flights, a parachute jump, paid runway taxiing trips and, most impressively, a night display over the Tamworth Town Hall involving Carpenter flying through a hoop of fire "for the first time in Australia."

The Municipal Council decided to open the Diamond Jubilee celebrations the following year with another Air Pageant. Airmen came from Sydney, Newcastle, Richmond, Grafton and Mudgee, with the 27 planes including RAAF Hawker Demons, Fokker Avros, Tiger Moth, Hornet Moth, Gipsy Moth, an Auto-Gyro (early helicopter) and an 8-seater Stinson airliner. The Northern Daily Leader commented that the Pageant " ...demonstrated what can be done in the air and carried many passengers on tours over the Peel Valley. It was the greatest assemblage of aeroplanes seen over the town."

With Tamworth having a licensed aerodrome, a branch of the Elementary Flying Training School was formed here by the RAAF in 1940 for preliminary wartime training, initially with eight officers and 73 trainees. Aircraft employed included Avro trainers, Tiger Moths, Wackett Trainers, Boomerangs, Oxfords, Wirraways and Avro Ansons. Unfortunately 10 fatalities from 1942 onwards occurred during training. (Visit our War Cemetery on Forest Road to find individual details).

The major step towards today's aviation profile came as early as 1945, when initial discussions took place between Basil Brown and Pat Carter, both coming from a war period aviation background.

This centred on the possibility of forming a new airline ('East-West Airlines'), initially to link Tamworth to Port Macquarie, Grafton, Inverell, Glen Innes and Moree, which eventually became exclusively a Tamworth-Sydney service.

By 1946 four wartime-service Avro Ansons had been flown to Tamworth to be converted for passenger flights. Joined by entrepreneurs Armidale's Don Shand and Inverell's Edward Wilkinson, and other Committee stakeholders, a meeting was called at the Tudor Hotel, with an opportune telegram arriving granting permission to operate a licensed airline service.

During 1947 the newly-formed East-West Airlines Company had employed two pilots - Archie Smith and John Rentell. The Company's first Tamworth-Sydney flight took place with seven passengers at 7am on June 23, 1947 in the Avro Anson 'Hinkler'.

Written at the time - "The first day of the Company's operations had a pioneering touch about it ... It was simply buckle your seatbelts and sit tight while landing." The Airline began with three flights weekly, soon increasing to daily flights, and later to two flights per day, all from our original Barnes Street Airport (now Taminda).

By 1952 Tamworth City Council was pursuing an improved larger airport, which was up and running by 1956, with a very short ceremonial flight taking place to the opening from the old airport to the new one on October 13. Ownership of the Airport transferred from the Department of Civil Aviation to Tamworth City Council in 1982, with a much upgraded airport being opened in 1985.

In 2001 the Australian Airports Association acknowledged our airport to be the best regional support airport in Australia, the first NSW airport to receive the award.

Sadly, after many great years of operation based in Tamworth, East-West Airlines was sold by shareholders to the ill-fated Ansett Corporation in 1987.

In that year East-West Airlines carried almost a million passengers, had a staff of over 1,000, and oversaw 13 Fokker aircraft. The takeover eventually led to the Airline's demise by 1993, including the Tamworth maintenance facility, a considerable blow to the Tamworth economy at the time.

Over the past 25 years or so we've seen the comings and goings of various aviation enterprises, including Eastern Australia Airlines, Tamair, QantasLink, Virgin, Fly Corporate, etc, together with our impressive Pilot Training Facility, that has suffered another recent setback with the Virgin Pilot Training contract being in a state of flux with the onset of the coronavirus.

Who knows what the future might hold for our excellent Airport facility?