The airport is located across the water on Horn Island so again we headed for the jetty and the water taxi. A couple of hours for a WW2 tour before heading for the departure lounge.
The airstrip was built for war duties and lined with defensive protection. Horn Island was bombed 500 times (in Australia, second only to Darwin.). But I’m jumping ahead.
we were met at the wharf by a guy who runs tours. He and his wife (who wasn’t here today) seem to live and breathe the 1940s history. But first there was the museum. A whole lot of information. Not all about the wartime? But I’m not sure. We didn’t have enough time to take it all in before we were whisked off to the next stop. There, we were almost at the edge of the runway. Slit trenches built for the anti-aircraft guns. The artillery here not as potent as a bit later at Kings Point. It was explained that the trenches were laid out in a Z pattern, so if a bomb dropped, the sideways effect of the blast would be deflected at the corners and those in the trenches would be kept safer. At each place we stopped there was good signage explaining what was going on.
From here, we continued on to Kings Point. (Not, as you might expect from the name, on the water. I guess it was a bit higher. Further away from the airstrip.) Here was a more serious installation with underground bunkers for storing ammunition. We were shown a video explaining how the guns were set up to hit flying aircraft. They had a machine thing called a Predictor. (A bit like we would use a computer!). Input the height and est speed of the enemy aircraft, adjust for wind speed and direction, and calculate the direction and elevation needed on the gun to hit the aircraft when it had moved forward by the time the shell got that far. This information was transmitted by cable to the 4 guns.
Apparently the floor level within this compound has been raised over the years. So the gun would have Sat rather lower behind the sandbagged walls.
And then it was time to head south. A Dash-8 400 aircraft. Very long and narrow. About 1:20 to Cairns.
first, the last view of Horn Is. Not sure if this is the reservoir that they built to secure the island water supply. Then, the first sign of ‘civilisation’. Back to traffic lights and noise.
So our last night. At the Shanghai La hotel on the waterfront.
View from the balcony of my room.
Farewell dinner. Various ways of dispersing the group tomorrow – our usual bus is in for emergency repairs. Our crew starts a new tour at lunchtime, with makeshift arrangements for the first few hours until the usual big white Outback Spirit bus is back on the road – expected to catch up with the new group in Port Douglas on Monday night and the crew does it all again. (They get 3 days off at the end of that trip. R&R in Cairns, interspersed with cleaning and restocking in preparation for the next trip!)
travellingkathy 