RAAF Base Pearce

Parent Place or Precinct

18713 Pearce Aerodrome & Adjacent Bushland

Values

The place is the main Royal Australian Air Force base in Western Australia.

The place remains the primary facility for the training of RAAF air force personnel in Western Australia.

The place was established in the Inter-War period, in order to train army and air force personnel, and provide security against any future seaborne attacks on Western Australia.

Physical Description

RAAF Base Pearce at Bullsbrook is inclusive of an Art Deco style red brick entrance gateway, which is sited adjacent to the Great Northern Highway.

The base contained a number of other Air Force related structures, including accommodation facilities.

History

In 1928, an evaluation of the Australia Air Force (AAF) in Western Australia was undertaken by Air Marshal Sir John Salmond of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Salmond’s Report recommended that an Air Station should be established near Perth, and that a Citizens Air Force (CAF) should be established with a squadron in Western Australia, which should cooperate with the training of Army Units and provide addition security against seaborne attacks.

No action was undertaken until 1934, when the Director of Air Force Works and Building selected a suitable site 28 miles (45km) northeast of Perth, and 640 acres (260 hectares) was purchased in December 1934. The site in Bullsbrook was situated adjacent to the Great Northern Highway to Geraldton to the east, and the Perth Geraldton Railway on the west.

Construction of the Air Base began in 1936, and was estimated to cost $2,000,000. The name ‘Pearce Air Force Station’ was chosen to commemorate Sir George Foster Pearce, KCVO, P.C. a Western Australian Senator. Pearce was the Minister of Defence between 1910 and 1921, and while in this position, he was responsible for introducing amendments to the Defence Act which implemented compulsory training and provisions for military colleges, and also passed Australia’s first Naval Defence Act of 1910, which established a Naval Board and naval college.

In September 1936, Wing Commanger R. J. Brownell was selected to take charge of, and the open, the RAAF branch in Western Australia. Brownell and his family took up residence in the unfinished Sergeants’ Mess at the base in 1937, which was without power or water for the first few months. He was joined later the same year by the first party of troops.

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