Pokolbin’s Lost Airstrip

Mike Scanlon had an interesting history article in the Newcastle Herald this weekend (22 October 2022), on the mystery of the forgotten World War 2 runway at Pokolbin. In 1942 the RAAF built an air station at Pokolbin. The north-south runway was located where the current Cessnock airport is now. But there was also second runway located towards the south-west.

In the article Mike mentions that this old east-west runway can still be seen in Google’s satellite views. Using the historical imagery feature in Google Earth Pro and winding back to 2007, indeed shows a faint yet quite distinct outline of the old runway lying beneath fields and vineyards.

The faint outline of the old east-west runway of the Pokolbin RAAF base can be seen in this Google Earth satellite image from 2007. The current Cessnock airport runway can be seen in the top right of the image. (Click on the photo to enlarge)

One thought on “Pokolbin’s Lost Airstrip

  1. Polkolbin is actually two landing strips. Yes you are right in regards to the area you have indicated but the present Cessnock is the other airstrip.

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