During
World War II a little-known landing field was constructed on the western shore of
Exmouth Gulf. It was code-named "
Potshot" and maintained by No. 76 Operational Base Unit, in support of
Operation Potshot. In the 1950s the landing field was further developed as a military base and named RAAF Learmonth in honour of Wing Commander
Charles Learmonth DFC and Bar, who, while leading
No. 14 Squadron, was killed in a flying accident off
Rottnest Island, Western Australia on 6 January 1944. Starting in June 1944,
Qantas used Learmonth as an intermediate stop for two converted
Consolidated Liberator bombers that flew a segment of the vital
England–Australia air route, supplementing modified
Consolidated PBY Catalinas flying
The Double Sunrise route to
Ceylon. The Liberators flew a shorter over-water route from Learmonth to an airfield northeast of
Colombo, and could make the journey in 17 hours with of payload, whereas the Catalinas usually required at least 27 hours and had to carry so much auxiliary fuel that their payload was limited to only . The route was named
Kangaroo Service and marked the first time that Qantas's now-famous kangaroo logo was used; passengers received a certificate proclaiming them as members of
The Order of the Longest Hop. Qantas would again use the base, much later, during the emergency landing of
Qantas Flight 72. In the mid-1960s, the Federal Government gave its support to plans by the
Chief of the Air Staff,
Air Marshal Val Hancock, to redevelop Learmonth as a bare base, due to its proximity to
Indonesia. Though
F-111Cs could have made a round-trip to Indonesia's capital,
Jakarta, from
RAAF Base Darwin, the route they took would have been very much limited by range. Learmonth's relative proximity added flexibility to the routes in and out, enhancing the likelihood of a successful strike. The major work was undertaken by
No. 5 Airfield Construction Squadron between 1971 and 1973. In October 2022, Qantas announced they would be servicing Melbourne-Exmouth flights for the first time from April to October 2023. ==Climate==