RAAF Base Townsville (YBTL) (Townsville)

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RAAF Base Townsville (IATA: TSV, ICAO: YBTL) (formerly RAAF Base Garbutt) is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) air base located in Garbutt, 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) west of Townsville[2] in Queensland, Australia.

Established in the 1930's as a civil aviation airfield and greatly expanded and militarized by the RAAF as the Second World War began, RAAF Townsville was heavily active in training RAAF aviators for duty in Europe until the 1941 declaration of war with the Japanese Empire. Suddenly located on the front lines of the war in the Pacific, the airfield became a major facility for RAAF, United States Army Air Forces and other Commonwealth air forces operating to check the advance of Japanese forces well into 1942. Bombed several times by long-range Japanese flying boats out of Rabaul, the airfield served as a primary bomber and maritime patrol force base as the tides turned against Japan in early 1943. Operating as a rear-area support and logistics hub for the duration of the war, RAAF Townsville continued to serve as a primary maritime patrol and recon facility well after the end of hostilities.

Shifting its role to that of a Army Air Support base, RAAF Townsville became home to several squadrons of fixed and rotary wing aircraft which provided airlift and tactical support to Australian Army forces until the 1989 transfer of the last RAAF rotary-wing squadron to the Australian Army. Presently the airfield and its installations operate under Australia's "Bare Base" policy, which maintains the entire facility in a high state of readiness for rapid activation and use by Australian forces.

RAAF Units presently stationed at RAAF Townsville:
No. 38 Squadron RAAF
No. 44 Wing Detachment
Headquarters No. 395 Expeditionary Combat Support Wing
No. 1 Combat Logistics Squadron
No. 1 Air Terminal Squadron Detachment Townsville
No. 323 Combat Support Squadron
No. 27 Squadron Combat Support Group
Combat Survival Training School