The Beaufort was a twin-engined torpedo bomber, built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. In 1939 the Australian government decided to have them built under licence by the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne and Mascot, New South Wales. Over 700 were built between 1941-1944 and were extensively used as a medium bomber and for general reconnaisance around Australia and the Pacific theatre of operations.

On the 9th of September 1943, a RAAF Beaufort A9-317 of No.14 Squadron took off from Busselton, Western Australia out into Geographe Bay on a patrol to search for enemy shipping. Carring four crew and one passenger, it was scheduled to land at RAAF base Pearce later that day, but never arrived. The circumstances of the disappaearance, on what should've been a routine patrol, remains an enduring mystery.

The Wunaamin-Miliwundi ranges are an elevated feature running through Western Australia's Kimberley region. Between 1879 and 2020 they were called the King Leopold Ranges after King Leopold II of Belgium. Through his private army the Force Publique he oversaw the death, torture and dismemberment of millions of people in the Congo Free State. The horror and depravity which took place were brought to mainstream attention by author Joseph Conrad in his novella 'Heart of Darkness'.

Why was 35,000 square kilomentres of Western Australia named for a blood soaked European monarch?

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Station Cunderdin was established in 1940 near the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Cunderdin. It was home to the No.9 Elementary Training School teaching ab initio (entry-level) pilots for the 'Empire Air Training Scheme' (EATS) an initiative to produce Australian air crew for eventual transfer to the Royal Air Force (RAF). Later it staged B-24 Liberator heavy bombers of the RAAF No.25 Squadron and US Army Air Force's 19th Bombardment Group (USAAF) conducting range ocean patrols for the defence of Western Australia. This episode of Backyard Battlefields contains an interview with John Utting, the full transcript of which can be found at the 'Australians at War Film Archive' (Archive number 1653)