Leigh Creek Township

The first houses were completed in the Leigh Creek township in 1944. Prior to this accommodation was predominately tents. During 1945, some electric light was installed, 12 new homes, the single men’s quarters and the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) hospital were finished. By 1949 the police station, school and community hall had all been completed but many people still lived in tents. During 1951/52, Nissen huts were built to accommodate single men still living in tents and more migrant workers and their families. These huts were known as “Silver City” and “Hollywood” respectively. In 1955 construction of Aroona Dam and the town swimming pool were both completed and a start had been made on concrete kerbing and bituminising town streets.

View Gordon Longstaff’s photo gallery from the 1950s

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The Single Men’s Mess

At the Airport

The Leigh Creek Airport was built in the 1940s and the inaugural flight was made from Parafield by Trans Australian Airlines (TAA) on 26 September 1950. It was an important stop-over for aircraft flying the Adelaide to Darwin route and within a few years TAA DC3 aircraft were offering five flights to Alice Springs and five to Adelaide each week. These flights also delivered daily newspapers and Leigh Creek residents no longer had to read news that was already a few days old.

Dan Dasher Dowling OIC Leigh Creek Aeradio later called Leigh Creek Flight Service with a DEPartment of civil aviation Avro Anson

The Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies visited on 26 June 1958

TAA focker friendship TFB probably in the 1950s. This aircraft crashed into the sea off Mackay 10 June 1960 killing all on board.

Ansett Focker Friendship VH-FNM in the 1960s

Fokker Friendship, Leigh Creek Airport, 1965 O'Dea family photos — Fokker Friendship, Leigh Creek Airport, 1965
O'Dea family photos

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The McGuinnes family - Roland, Betty and children April, Tracy and Kenneth - departing Leigh Creek after their stay during commissioning of the Page dragline, 1971

RAAF C-130A Hercules A97-210 - No 36 Squadron

C-130A Hercules A97-207 - No 36 Squadron

RAAF C-130A Hercules A97-206 - No. 36 Squadron

RAAF De Havilland DHC-4 Caribou - No 38 squadron

These photographs of the RAAF Caribou and Iroquois were taken in 1968 and form part of the O’Dea family collection.
At that time National Servicemen and Regular Army soldiers did exercises in the area before they went to jungle training in Queensland then Vietnam.

RAAF C-130 arriving at Leigh creek airport in 1969 (Donna Read)

These photographs, of the Adastra Aerial Survey aircraft VH-AGE, were taken at Leigh Creek in 1964 by Peter Read. They include a shot of the survey equipment carried in the aircraft, Leigh Creek and the coal mine, Marree and the SA/NSW Border area. In 1966 this aircraft crashed whilst conducting magnetometer survey flights near Tennant Creek and all six people on board were killed.