MEEKATHARRA …. Alternative airport to Perth!

The personnel in the office I worked in at Perth [admittedly a long time ago] would go into peals of laughter each time we heard that a flight had been diverted from Perth to Meekatharra. It was usually a British flight, as they were scheduled for early morning arrival, when fog might shroud the Perth airport. We envisaged these sweet English roses, used to their misty grey-blue hills, arriving in Meeka, and in glaring sunlight stepping onto the tarmac which is surrounded by miles of dead-flat, red, dusty landscape sparsely covered in straw-coloured grass and stunted grey-green shrubs. Did they think the Pilot had landed on Mars by mistake?  And would the impression be enhanced by the woman who, reportedly, used to refuel the planes arriving in her dressing gown?

The runway is huge; it was installed by the U.S. air force during the Second World War … it’s good that it gets a workout by these bigger planes occasionally.

It’s only taken 50 years for me to actually visit Meekatharra.