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Cloncurry Airport
Cloncurry Airport
	IATA: CNJ; ICAO: YCCY;
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Cloncurry Shire Council
Location	Cloncurry, Queensland
Elevation AMSL	616 ft / 188 m
Coordinates	20°39′55″S 140°30′23″E / 20.66528°S 140.50639°E
Map
	YCCY Location in Queensland
Runways
	Sources: Australian AIP and aerodrome chart

Cloncurry Airport (IATA: CNJ, ICAO: YCCY) is an airport in Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia.

History

Cloncurry Airport has been the focal point for many of Australia's greatest innovations. Cloncurry was involved with the beginnings of QANTAS, and the original QANTAS hangar is still in use at the aerodrome, where "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service" is still displayed above the hangar door.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service was founded there in 1928, now recognised the world over. The airport was also on route for early planes coming from overseas and a stopping place for contestants in the great air races of 1919 and 1934.

In the late 1930s (as early as 1938, as late as 1941), the KNILM service from Batavia (Jakarta) to Sydney, connecting at Batavia from Amsterdam on KLM, called at Cloncurry. On the way South, passengers spent the night, while on the way North, they had a luncheon in Cloncurry.^[2]

In early 2022, Horizon Airways established a base in Cloncurry providing flight training for all initial and advanced training, as well as fixed wing charter flight services.^{[citation needed]}

World War II

Due to the strategic importance of Cloncurry aerodrome on the main Darwin–Sydney air route, the Royal Australian Air Force expanded the aerodrome during World War II. Intended to be a major airbase should the Empire of Japan have occupied New Guinea and Papua.

During the Second World War, Cloncurry Airport was the site of a major United States Army Air Forces air base in 1942. As the war moved north, the USAAF units located north to forward bases.

List of wartime military units based at Cloncurry Aerodrome

No. 29 Operational Base Unit RAAF - 22 June 1942 – 5 July 1943
No. 30 Operational Base Unit RAAF - 12 December 1942 – 19 September 1946
No. 107 Radar Station RAAF - 1 June 1942 – 11 September 1942
No. 108 Radar Station RAAF - 1 June 1942 – 11 September 1942
USAAF 19th Bombardment Group B-17 Flying Fortress

HQ 19th Bomb Group assigned to Essendon Airport, Melbourne, Victoria

28th Bombardment Squadron, (28 March-5 May 1942)

Detachment operated from: Perth Airport, Perth, Western Australia, (28 March-18 May 1942)

30th Bombardment Squadron, (24 March-13 May 1942)

93d Bombardment Squadron, (29 March-18 May 1942)

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Alliance Airlines	Brisbane, Townsville Mining charter: Cairns
QantasLink	Mount Isa, Townsville

References

^ YCCY – Cloncurry (PDF). AIP En Route Supplement from Airservices Australia, effective 28 November 2024, Aeronautical Chart Archived 25 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
^ "KNILM Timetable". airline timetable images. Retrieved 31 December 2021.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

Pacific Wrecks database
RAAF Museum website
Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.