Australia's Cape York Peninsula, with small isolated communities , contains a variety of airports, the one for Lockhart River the Iron Range Airport built by American engineers in WWll. At the airport is a memorial for the May 7 , 2005 crash of a Metroliner on a flight from Bamaga to Cairns , on South Pap , Iron Range , killing two crew and 13 passengers, about ll kms away.
With a population less than 1000, made up of five clans , Lockhart River , on the east coast , is 500kms by road from Cairns and 2550kms by road from Brisbane. It is opposite the mining centre of Weipa on the west coast .
Skytrans plane on tarmac at Lockhart River. Based in Cairns, one of the shareholders in the airline is high flying Cowboys rugby league player with the golden point boot , Johnathan Thurston , of Townsville. The airline runs scheduled passenger flights to nine communities in Cape York .
The Aurukun Airport, on the west coast, 100kms south of Weipa , in a bauxite rich area, includes this painting . Wet season rains make roads impassable, the air link vital . A recent aerial view of Aurukun with a population about 2000, shows the town , which faces west to the Gulf of Carpentaria , after heavy rain .
