Diary of an aviation nut: Fascinating Forrest

On one of my previous flying trips in May 2009, I called into Forrest in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain for fuel. It was a brief "gas and go" stop but the place has always fascinated me and been somewhere I wanted to go back to and spend some time there. It was a "must do" when planning the REALLY Big Trip around Australia.

The largest section of straight railway track in the world is 478km long and Forrest sits almost in the middle of it. There's nothing (and I mean nothing) for hundreds of kilometres around except the railway line and the road across the Nullarbor Plain about 100km to the south. Originally Forrest was established as a railway town in 1917. "Town" might be stretching the definition a little.

In 1929 the airport was established as a half-way stop for the transcontinental aircraft flying from Adelaide to Perth. de Havilland DH66 Hercules were initially used on the route but couldn't make it without refueling so the airport and a hostel was established to accommodate the 14 passengers. The airfield offers two large sealed runway vectors at 1349m and 1519m which, as the only features on the vast Nullarbor Plain can be seen from miles away. It's regularly used by pilots today for fuel and a leg stretch.

We left Esperance and began our journey to Forrest, skimming along the coast past the scatter of little islands that make up the Archipelago of the Recherche. As we headed east, coastal beaches started off blindingly white, then gradually gave way to cliffs 200–300 feet high. Out here it looks like someone attacked Australia with a geological cookie‑cutter — sheer cliffs at the edge, and absolutely nothing happening on the land behind them.

As we turned toward Forrest from the coast we passed over the Eyre Highway that runs from Adelaide to Perth and which requires an investment of days of your life to drive. There was quite a bit of traffic on it.

We landed in Forrest about 11am which gave us the rest of the day to explore. We were met by manager Andy who refueled our aircraft and helped us push them into the massive historical hangar for the night, Then he drove us to our cottage. The cottage is only one of six available for transiting pilots or road travelers who care to drive into Forrest. It was old but comfortable.

Armed with a booklet provided in the cottage, in the afternoon we did the historical walk which took us around a dozen or so interesting places around the airfield and abandoned meteorological office setup to support the airfield. That walk finished at the railway where we were lucky to catch an enormous freight train heading east.

There's lots of quirky things around Forrest one of which is the pilot's toilet. There's a pen provided for you to record your visit on the wall and it's cool to stand at the urinal and see who's been there before you. The "Trans-Tasman Adventurers" are now permanently recorded as having visited that loo.

Included in our stay was a nice home cooked evening meal provided by Manager Andy and wife Donna in the sun room of their cottage. There were several other guests there including a couple of electricians who specialise in outback work and who fly into locations with all their gear in the back of a Piper Twin Commanche. It was a fun evening with good down-to-earth Australian cobbers.

I'm glad I made it to Forrest and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. It’s one of those wonderfully odd Australian places that refuses to disappear — a tiny dot of civilisation with a colourful history on the vast Nullarbor Plain.