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Mount Gambier Airport lies in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia, a few nautical miles north of the city it serves, and is the region's only commercial aerodrome. It offers three sealed, lit runways and a flying history stretching back to 1930, having served as a major RAAF observer training base during the Second World War. Today it hosts scheduled airline services alongside general aviation and flight training activity.
Mount Gambier Airport, known officially as Mount Gambier Regional Airport, is situated at Wandilo in South Australia's Limestone Coast region and is owned and operated by the District Council of Grant. It is the sole commercial airport serving Mount Gambier, the wider Limestone Coast and nearby towns across the Victorian border, with QantasLink and Rex Airlines operating multiple daily flights to Adelaide and Melbourne. For a visiting VFR pilot the field is notable both for its regional airline traffic and for its deep wartime history as a Royal Australian Air Force training base.
The airport sits at Wandilo on the Riddoch Highway, about 5 nautical miles north of the town of Mount Gambier itself, placing it centrally within the Limestone Coast region of South Australia and within reach of towns just across the Victorian border.
Mount Gambier has three sealed and lit runway pairs. Runway 18/36 is the longest at roughly 5,005 ft, runway 11/29 measures around 3,020 ft, and runway 06/24 is about 2,771 ft. All three are hard-surfaced. The airport has no instrument landing system.
No instrument landing system is available at Mount Gambier, and specific published radio frequencies for the field are not detailed in available records.
The airport lies directly on the Riddoch Highway north of Mount Gambier, which provides a useful linear landmark for pilots approaching from the town.
The original Mount Gambier aerodrome was established when H.S. (Stan) May and S.C. Davis purchased land opposite the present airport site on the Riddoch Highway, with the aerodrome officially opening on 21 May 1930 and scheduled airline services to Adelaide and Melbourne beginning that same year. The owners later acquired land from the 'Croyle Estate', including a further parcel purchased on 2 June 1936, which forms the site of today's airport. A licence was granted by the Civil Aviation Branch of the Department of Defence on 1 July 1936, allowing regular public transport flights to begin from the new site. In July 1939 the Federal Government purchased the aerodrome from its civilian owners and began building a Royal Australian Air Force base to house No. 2 Air Observers School, which formed officially on 6 February 1941 with its first trainee intake on 6 March 1941. At its peak the school held over 1,000 personnel and had its own ambulance, hospital, butcher, gymnasium and cinema; it trained more than 4,000 Air Observers, Navigators and Wireless Operators before disbanding in January 1946, many graduates later serving with RAF Bomber Command over Germany, the Atlantic, the Middle East and South East Asia. The school also conducted coastal surveillance from Mount Gambier, reporting a number of submarine sightings during the war. On 29 May 1947 the airport passed to the Department of Civil Aviation, and Ansett Airways announced a daily service to Melbourne. The Mount Gambier Gliding Club was formed in July 1947, and the airport continued to serve as an important regional link to Adelaide and Melbourne over the following decades. Ansett Airways later ceased operations when the airline group went into administration in 2001.
Mount Gambier Airport continues to handle scheduled airline services from QantasLink and Rex Airlines, with multiple daily flights to Adelaide and Melbourne. General aviation activity includes flight training: Aerostar Aviation, an Adelaide-based operator, opened a flying school at the airport in 2014 using a Cessna 172, ending a fifteen-year gap in local flight training since the closure of the O'Connor Airlines training facility in 1999. In mid-2016 instructor Tony Peters commenced operations under the Gambier Flying School. Air charter operator deBruin Air, formed in 2008 after acquiring the assets of defunct O'Connor Airlines, provided executive and business charter, fly-in fly-out contract work, aerial photography, fire spotting and freight services until its closure in early 2016. A major redevelopment completed in early 2021 delivered a new terminal, an extended main runway, and a new heavy aircraft apron to accommodate firebombing aircraft.
