General News
31 December, 2025
BEST OF 2025: Airshow thrills
First published April 9, 2025. The Tooraweenah community had positive flow-on effects after a successful 2025 Arthur Butler Aviation Museum’s (ABAM) 2025 Air Show at Tooraweenah Airport on Saturday, April 5 as the ABAM committee now assesses its next steps after such a big event.
Around 1000 people attended the three-hour event which was described as spectacular viewing.
ABAM ambassador and vice-president Mark Pitts said the event was an entire community effort from the people of Tooraweenah to make this event both safe and spectacular.
“It was just non-stop for just over three hours of non-stop action, and they’re (spectators) really pretty much absorbed the whole time,” Mark said. “It wasn’t one of those things where you have a break and you’re waiting for something to happen,” he said.
“It was just this continuous flow of energy. “It was a total community effort … we had other volunteers come in and support us, as they do in Tooraweenah, to make it happen.”
While Tooraweenah has a rich aviation history thanks to Mark’s late grandfather Arthur Butler, many locals had never seen anything like it before with Paul Bennet Airshows’ crew and planes stunning the big crowd.
“Most people have never, ever seen an air show like this before,” Mark said. “It was really, really spectacular, having some of the old Warbird planes such as Trojans, Mustangs, and Hurricanes. To be there and actually feel the energy these planes is incredible.”
“It is pretty scary at times when you see what they’re doing out there in the sky. And the finale that they did was absolutely incredible.
“You know, these planes working inches apart from each other and doing a whole lot of things, falling backwards out of the sky.
“Yeah … everyone was absolutely stunned with a few comments where it was worth every cent and more for coming to the event.”
The event was a celebration of nostalgia and acknowledging Arthur Butler’s part in putting Tooraweenah on the map for his feats in aviation. Cecil ‘Arthur’ Butler, set the solo record flying time from England to Australia in 1931, a mark that still stands.
Post World War II, Butler Air Transport Pty Ltd was registered as a public company and started chartering flights to and from Tooraweenah.
The workhorse of the Butler Air Transport days when people could fly from Toora to Sydney and many other routes across rural NSW and Queensland in the 1940s and 1950s was the Douglas DC-3, which also made an appearance.
“Having the DC-3 there was very, very nostalgic,” said Mark.
