Day 17 19.08.18 Charleville

Temperature of 8 overnight was pleasant.  Morning started off with a load of washing before heading off for a 1km native timber walk through Graham Andrews Parkland.  We made a couple of feathered friends, who followed us around for awhile.

The parkland is under development and has the potential to be very family friendly. There were 18 different species of Native Australian trees, of which I didn't photograph 😑 Lots of birdlife also.

 Egret stalking fish.

Chook whisperer !

Pretty flowers on the walk way.

Birds of prey circling, possibly Brahmy kites.

There was a very cold wind blowing so we headed off for a coffee before our WW11 convoy tour. Charleville was home to 3500 US airmen and ground crew. 160 aircraft were stationed at the base. Charleville was chosen because in 1942 it was out of range from the enemies. It's dry climate helped minimise corrosive deterioration.

 Outside the coffee shop.

 First stop on the tour was at the airport.

The original airport terminal.

 And the new terminal.

The Norden Bomb Hut, as described below, was very top secret and heavily guarded.

The Norden bomb sight, the first mechanical device for accurate bombing.

The view from inside the nose cone where the bombardiers sat. The sight was mounted into the nose cone of the B17 Flying Fortress.  5 sights were brought to Charleville to test in combat conditions.

A cheeky emu having a feast on the mulga trees.

 3 baths are still visible.

The mess.

 Where the cooks would have cooked!

 2 American nurses were stationed at the base. They lived in the house below.

 As below.

Apparently all the display photos are fake as the base was top secret.

As above
After the tour we checked out the airport and RFDS centre.

 Smudge pot used to light the landing strip.

Went for a walk exploring in the afternoon.

 Ended up walking for about 3kms

Pelicans turn up in the most unexpected places . 

 Very brown but at least it had water in it.

 

Somebody had thrown the geese a big pile of green leaves so they weren't bothered with us.

 Yep lots of fast moving cars on this hwy.

In the evening we sat around the camp fire for a couple of hours chatting with other travelers.