The history of Tyagarah airfield is steeped in mystery fact tragedy and rumour. Early twentieth century publications document the development of aviation across the Northern Rivers region from the very first informal weekend joyrides and Mail Runs in the 1920's operating off paddocks of Tyagarah Mullumbimby Murwillumbah and the beaches of Brunswick Heads, Fingal, and Bellongil, to formal visits by Kingsford Smith landing at Tygalgum airfield Murwillumbah in his famous Southern Cross Ford Trimotor. During these times Tyagarah and the Myocum valley can both hold their hat in the circle.


Tyagarah's specific aviation history began in the 1930's with an aviator by the name of Alan Ellis. Ellis, trained by Captain Keith Virtue, owned and operated two aircraft, building one himself, and keeping them in a shed upon his property in Tyagarah. Documents available place Ellis Airfield in Tyagarah six miles from the township of Byron Bay being the current position of the airfield. So we can safely say the airfield has its foundations dating all the way back to the mid 1930's.


Ellis was a passionate pioneer and aviator who never gave up, rebuilding his hangar and damaged aircraft after a hurricane swept through the region in the later half of the 1930's. He went on to propose both an aero club and an airfield be established on the outskirts of Byron Bay in the later half of the 1940's, offering the town a 150acre parcel of land that he managed. The project received wide support from the local chamber of commerce yet faltered and was abandoned when the land, which is where the Byron Industrial Estate now resides, became impossible to continue work due to the affects rain and mud was having upon the machines.


Early joyflights and flight training were often conducted over the Myocum area in the 1920's and 30's by Captain Keith Virtue in a Tiger Moth and DH-84, Don McMasters in a De Soutter Monoplane, and Captain Holden in a Puss Moth. However tragedy struck one fateful day when Captain Holden, Ralph Virtue, and Dr Hamilton, three avid aviators, all perished in a tragic accident when the aircraft they were flying from Coffs Harbour in came to grief over the Barllow dairy farm in Myocum. Their memory and contribution to the Byron Shire community was honoured on Anzac Day 1937 by the planting of three moreton bay fig trees by children of the Myocum Primary School and the laying of a commemorative plaque by the Myocum Parents & Citizens Association at the scene of the accident. Over two hundred people attended the Anzac Day ceremony and the trees are still where they were planted 90 years ago.


Time marched onward, and in July 1961 the airfield was Gazetted by the Commonwealth Government as a "Landing Place" with specific conditions that the area cannot be used for anything other than the sole purpose of operating aircraft and public recreation. Progress came to the shire in the mid 1960's with the development of the Ocean Shores Wendell West  "golf" estate; an American ideal with a flash boom and bust story all of its own. Popular rumours have it that Tyagarah Airfield was developed for the purpose of allowing Ocean Shores' highflyers to access the area however this is not true; that facility was actually provided for in the mid 1960's by Billinudgel Property Group via Jack Bashforth carving out what is now Pacific Esplanade at South Golden Beach. Fortunately the sons of both Jack Bashforth and Bert Ward earth moving companies are still alive to tell their respective father's stories. John Bashforth remembers his father working their machines on the current airfield site when he was still in high school, so this puts the carving out of today's airfield at Tyagarah taking place prior to 1968. Aerial photographs show the strip suddenly appear in full splendor in 1971. The original strip was constructed mostly of sand that was raised from either side of the strip to provide drainage flow all the way through to Simpsons Creek at the eastern end of the field. The drainage canals are still in place however are not as deep as they once were and are now heavily vegetated with thick scrub growth and peat that occasionally catches fire in the summer months.


Other rumours have the airfield's original material purpose being for the CIA to undertake clandestine operations of dubious nature associated with narcotics and the Nugan Hand Bank. Unfortunately there is no evidence available to either prove or disprove this rumour so it will remain a rumour of mystery. Other popular locally told rumours have the airfield being constructed by Wendell West as part of an unspoken agreement with council to attain approval for the Ocean Shores development.


Contrary to any written or verbal history aerial and satellite photography taken from NSW and US CIA historical archives shows no apparent airstrip in place until 1971, however there is a gap in available images from 1965 up to 1971, so again only the words of first hand witnesses place the airstrip materialising from 1967 forward.

 

 

The original hangar that the clubhouse is attached to was the first structure since Ellis' earlier time and was erected upon the field in 1978, being relocated from somewhere out west; while the clubhouse was originally the Byron Golf Club and relocated from Suffolk Park not long after the hangar was erected.


Alan Rundle, another aviator of the airfield and one of only two Geomorphologists in Australia, the other being Norman Sanders, also a member of Tyagarah Aero Club, remembers landing at Tyagarah in a Piper Twin in 1968 when he was sent up from Sydney's Macquarie University to consult for the NSW Government upon  the Ocean Shores Development Proposal. So we can assume that the airstrip was already in place by 1968.


Retired State Senator Norman Sanders, our oldest aviator at the field and responsible for initiating the Franklin River conservation movement in Tasmania presents a brief alternate history garnered from "The Brunswick, Another River And Its People" by Jim Brokenshire; he paraphrases below...


The first real proposal for the airstrip at Tyagarah came in February of 1970 when a committee was set up to investigate the possible construction of a 3000 foot strip there. The land on which it was to be built was owned both by the Byron Council and the Dept of Crown Lands. The first 1000′ on the western end was owned by Byron Shire Council and the remainder, about 2000′ on the eastern end, was Crown land for which Council had to obtain a lease.


Construction of the airstrip began in February 1971 with many district people providing a great deal of voluntary work in conjunction with machinery loaned by the company Wendell-West, then the proprietors of the Ocean Shores landholdings where the community of Ocean Shores is today. Land was set aside on the council’s portion for private enterprise, the first applicant for its use came from Air Gold Coast. Later the Tyagarah Aero Club was formed which used the council owned hangar and a community hall was built as well.


At first with very few facilities operating improvisation was essential and, with no windsock available, the initial substitute was a small fire, so that incoming pilots could see the direction of wind by the drift of the smoke. The fire, however, didn’t stay small, escaped control and threatened to burn out the whole strip. Showing great ingenuity, the committee then erected a pole to which they attached a 30 foot length of toilet paper as a substitute windsock.


Today there are numerous sport and recreational activities taking place at the airfield. The airfield supports many community interests, and it truly upholds the mandated wishes of The Commonwealth Gazette.

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If you have information or documents and photographs recording the early history of the airfield we would like to hear from you!