This Website had
its beginnings in June 1991 when I published a modest little
booklet entitled Significant Events at Brisbane Airport.
When I say "modest", I am talking sixteen photocopied pages
and a print run in the order of twenty, so don't be too surprised
if you haven't got one in your library! This booklet listed
various "firsts" and "lasts" which I had personally chronicled
during the course of my work with Qantas at the 'drome. This
booklet later evolved into a similarly modest, occasional newsletter
which sought to record the daily comings and goings at Brisbane
Airport. This newsletter bore the strange name of Squawk
Ident.
That's A Funny
Name.
For those readers
not familiar with the term, "Squawk Ident" is Air Traffic Control
talk for "use your transponder to identify yourself on radar".
Therefore, it seemed to me to be an appropriate name for a publication
which intended to identify specific aeroplanes for the historical
record. Squawk Ident was soon displaced by Noel Oxlade's
excellent Armchair Aviation which sadly, is no longer
published. Similarly, its successor, AIR NEWS Queensland
is also no longer available. More recently it has become increasingly
apparent that my original "Significant Events" booklet was in
dire need of a major update. Thus was born:
Squawk Ident -
The Website!
While I expect that some may be disappointed that this material
is not available in printed form, the flexibility and immediacy
of the World Wide Web is an attractive alternative to the considerable
expense of the print medium. In any case, readers of this Website
are at liberty to print these pages and share them around. This
after all, is the prime purpose of publishing in the first place
- to record and to disseminate facts which might otherwise be
lost.
Some readers might question the inclusion of flying boat operations
from the Brisbane River and Redland Bay. The reason for this
is that these stretches of water, in their time, constituted
Brisbane Water Airport and their movements were controlled from
Eagle Farm. Similarly, some readers might wonder why operations
from Archerfield have been ignored entirely, even though Archerfield
was Brisbane's main airport for many years. Principally because
of a lack of information on this aerodrome I have had to make
a conscious decision to deem it beyond the scope of this Website,
even though Archerfield is a particularly historic aerodrome.
For information on the history of Archerfield, please see Peter
Dunn's
Archerfield @ War.
Squawk Ident is not intended as a "Brisbane Airport Newsletter",
for it will not record daily aircraft movements unless they
fall into a "first" or "last" category or are otherwise significant.
For the official word on Brisbane Airport, please visit the
Brisbane
Airport Corporation Website. It is my hope that Squawk
Ident will provide a valuable resource for airlines, airport
operators and the news media as well as for fellow historians
and enthusiasts.
Mudmap
The layout of Squawk
Ident should be fairly straightforward and easily navigable,
but here are some pointers to assist:
- Events are listed
in chronological order.
- The chronology
is divided into two sections, 1928-1988 and 1988-2002. These
periods relate to the old (Eagle Farm) Airport and the current
Brisbane International Airport which opened in 1988.
- Remember - "firsts"
and "lasts" refer to Brisbane unless stated otherwise.
- First = the
first ever.
- Last = the last
ever. This can be difficult to define, particularly while
HARS continue to operate! Its use is usually restricted
to operators which have gone out of business or operators
which have permanently withdrawn from service a particular
type of aircraft or if an aircraft type is now extinct.
- FRS = First
Regular Scheduled. The airline or aircraft type referred
to may have visited previously as a diversion or a charter.
"Regular Scheduled" implies at least a weekly frequency
over a period of several months.
- LRS = Last Regular
Scheduled. The airline or aircraft type referred to may
visit again at some time in the future as the airline continues
to operate the type in question.
- Click on the
little camera icon for related images - in most cases of
the actual event described.
- If you are unfamiliar
with airport/city codes there is a listing under CODES.
This is not intended as a comprehensive listing, as only
codes used within these pages are included.
- There is a comprehensive
INDEX which should lead
you to that elusive event. The dates in the index are linked
to the relevant entry in the chronology.
- Any corrections
or additions will be listed under UPDATES.
- Links to related
sites can be found under SOURCES.
I hope you find Squawk Ident both useful and enjoyable.
Please email me with any
additions, corrections or comments. I expect that some of the
events recorded in these pages may have slipped through the
net when I compiled the index. Please let me know if you find
any such omissions. The FEEDBACK
page lists alternative means of contacting me.
Regards
Ron Cuskelly
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