If we weren’t leaning up against a fence watching the air traffic come and go, we’d be riding around the airport on our bikes trying to find a better place to view the landings and takeoffs, or just sitting on the concrete steps watching planes takeoff and land.
Or I even remember once knocking on the door of the Control Tower to use the phone, with them actually agreeing to let us in to watch “what an Air Traffic Controller did” and stand in the back looking out over the airfield.
Click to expand. Photo supplied by CAHS of the inside of the Essendon Airport control tower in the 1960s
When I was young, I also got to experience a couple of joy flights and the little business hub that was there at the time (nothing compares with what’s there now). I also recall using the venues at Essendon Airport for football presentation nights or going to the disco.
As a young boy growing up in West Essendon, the airport was a big part of my life.
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