Here we are at Essendon Airport back in 1969, when jet planes were only just new, and Ansett and TAA were your options for domestic air travel.
And here is the same spot in 2013.
Pole 18 might still be there, but plenty of things have changed.
- Melbourne Airport replaced Essendon in 1970, with longer runways and larger terminals able to handle the explosion in air travel,
- The Two Airlines Policy was finally abolished in 1990 following deregulation of Australian domestic air travel,
- Ansett Australia changed logos a few times, until it went into liquidation in 2002,
- Essendon Airport was granted national heritage status in 2003.
But there the story ends – the terminal has since undergone a $4 million renovation completed in 2019, that converted much of the main arrival hall into office space.
It’s a sympathetic nod to the past, but the time capsule from the 1960s is now gone.
Further reading
- Essendon Airport listing in the Australian Heritage Database.
Love your work, Marcus, but note: “The terminal has since *undergone* a $4 million renovation…”.
Thanks – corrected. 😛
I was based at Essendon Airport in the late sixties, as a PMG techician, the office was in the small red brick building belong to the Bureau of Meteorology. I lived in Airport West so I walked to work each day. Ansett used Flxible Clippers as airport buses at one stage, ferrying passengers to their terminal in Swanston Street (cnr Franklin Street – Qantas built their new office block nearby)
As part of my work there I was involved with the building of Tullamarine, installing and testing communications gear.
Later, upstairs at Essendon Airport was a nightclub (The Cockpit) and I recall seeing John Farnham singing there …
I still have an ‘I love Essendon Airport’ sticker somewhere, from when there was a campaign to close it down, following the crash of an aircraft into houses in Airport West.