Bart Bear's Blog

At Williamtown, between Port Stevens and Newcastle, is a fantastic museum called Fighter World. It is just outside the boundary fence at the end of the main runway of RAAF base Williamtown, where the Australian Strike Fighter force is based. On the other side of the airfield is Newcastle airport. So when you visit Fighter World you not only have a museum with examples of most of the RAAF fighters to look at, but also lots of military and commercial aircraft taking off or landing right in front of you. We spent hours there on our way home from our Gold Coast trip. I really liked the exhibits, because you can get right up to the aeroplanes. There are even ladders for you to climb up for a look inside the cockpit. There is also a viewing deck where you can see what's happening all over the airfield. The thing that I loved most of all was sitting in the outdoor cafe watching the activity on the base. Milkshake, Blu and I were able to sit in the shade and see Hawks, Hornets, PC-9s and airliners taking off only a couple of hundred metres away. The FA-18 Hornets in this picture went straight overhead. Us small critters loved the noise, even if some kids at another table didn't. Where was Scruffy? Well, Scruff doesn't like aircraft much so he was catching up on sleep back in the car.

Labels: aircraft, New South Wales, Newcastle