*EDITED*
The red lines outline the boundary of the airport area which is 93.3 ha. In addition to that, the authorities want to take another 140ha (where all the little houses are) and turn it into industrial land with hangars and such.

HERE’S the official press release about the upcoming aerospace hub if you’re interested. A brief summary:

-Reason:Great enthusiasm about aerospace and its benefit to the economy:

Singapore’s aerospace industry…has grown by a compounded annual rate of more than 12%… Last year, the industry registered a record output of $5.2 billion, a 17% increase over 2004. Seletar Aerospace Park is expected to contribute S$3.3 billion annually in value-added (1% of GDP) and create 10,000 new jobs…

-Contents of park:

140 ha…a new integrated aerospace industry cluster incorporating aerospace MRO; design and manufacturing of aircraft systems and components; business & general aviation activities; and an aviation campus for the training of pilots, aviation professionals and technical personnel.

-Conservation? Hints at the possibility of conservation of some (unnamed number) of bungalows, but no promises:

The master-planning of the Seletar Aerospace Park will take into consideration the merits of retaining some of the existing buildings and the potential for adaptive reuse as part of the aerospace park.

-Timeframe: Masterplan to be finalised end 2006, execution to start chop chop in 2007 and be spread over 8 years.

Stay tuned for a map of the “study area” that was appended to the press release.

Link

UFM deejays Huang Wenhong (文鸿 ) and Xiao Zhu (小猪) came down to record a radio show about Seletar airbase this evening. We arranged for them to meet some residents and a canteen uncle who’s lived there since the days of the British. Tune in at the abovementioned time to catch it!

Seletar airport– Singapore’s cutest airport. The building is really small, like each of its arms is perhaps 6m wide and 1 storey high. Here’s where you would land your private jet if you’re the sultan of Brunei. The landing strip is too short for a 747 (heavy planes brake over a longer distance).

A view from one resident’s backyard- some houses are right up against the landing strip.

If you’re wondering how people tolerate the noise of planes, well it’s because these small planes are more like insects– they buzz, not roar.

The airbase is also home to a couple of flying schools and clubs, including the Youth Flying Club, Singapore Flying Club and Singapore Flying college.

The whole conceptualisation and planning process in the construction of the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) took several years to materialise. The long drawn process involved active collaboration between the various organisations and the affected residents. Environment, resettlement and economic issues were seriously considered before putting the airport plan into action. For more information about the project, visit: http://www.berlin-airport.de/bbi/rubEnglish/index.html

Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t just a military facility, but a lovely residential neighbourhood.





Despite the forbidding gateway, anyone can enter. The rule was abolished after residents complained that it made things difficult for their guests.

The airbase is dotted with charming little black-and-white houses set in generous gardens. These were originally the quarters of married members of the Royal Air Force. Unlike the mammoth expat-occupied bungalows near Tanglin, these are much more modest in scale– and also in rental.

This is the largest house on the base. It’s a British version of a longhouse on stilts! Note the “void deck” underneath. This rents for about $7k a month.





Yup, those are genuine working chimneys– some homesick British architect designed them into these buildings. Those little black squares at their base are holes for coal!

points from the book Lion In The Sky: the story of Seletar and the Royal Air Force by Neville Shorrick

In the beginning, before the jungle was cleared to make an airbase, it was inhabited by natives called the Kon Seletar. Very primitive hunters and fishers, they were removed from Singapore by the late Maharaja Abu Bakar of Johore.

Although the airplane was invented in 1903, it was slow in coming to Singapore. It was only in 1921 when the British cabinet decided to establish an up-to-date naval base here that they also decided to make an air field. The site of 600 acres was originally covered by mostly rubber plantation. It was even more ulu in those days, reachable only via snake-ridden dirt tracks and boat. Even when the Brits started to lay main roads, these were regularly sabotaged by land crabs who dug holes in them. Memorably, a huge cobra was found one night wrapped around the leg of a visiting supervisor as he slept, and its mate among the papers in the chief engineer’s office.

Work started on the site in 1923. The creation of the airplane landing ground required enormous amounts of felling and cutting. More than 1 million tons of earth were shifted, on a scale unprecedented in Malaya.

This book claims that Jalan Kayu was named after Mr C.E. Woods, the Principal Works and Buildings Officer for the RAF Far East.

In 1929, the airbase was also opened to non-military aircraft. In the early days of the airplane, round-the-world flights were the most exciting thing. British pilots set out to fly from Britain to Australia in record time, stopping through Britain’s colonies along the way. This was dangerous– some went missing and were never found– but they were daring, and they were often welcomed by cheering crowds. Singapore became a regular stopover on these flights. The first visitors to Seletar were four supermarine flying boats (airplanes that landed on the water). Other notable round-the-world flights that stopped over included Smithy (Charles Kingfeld Smith), and a lady pilot Amy Johnson.

Other uses of the airbase included air mail (Java Air Service, 1930) and cargo. In 1936, 2095 passengers and 52,657 lb of mail passed through Seletar.

Said Sir Cecil Clementi, governor of the Straits Settlements from 1930-1931, “Looking into the future, I expect to see Singapore become one of the largest and most important airports in the world. It is on the direct route to Australia and is bound to develop as a nodal point for air services in the course of time.”

But after Kallang was built in 1937, Seletar became military-use only again. However, many locals were employed in the base as well, as civilian workers.

1942- World War II. When news of the war arrived at the officers’ mess in the base, the men arose and drank a solemn toast to Britain’s impending victory. But they had not reckoned on the power of 27 small but potent Japanese fighter planes, who bombed the airfield every day without fail, in perfect formation, on their way back from bombing the rest of Singapore. Like clockwork, it was every morning at 9.50 at every afternoon at 3pm, and once at night. In true British spirit, even this was an occasion for a drink. Recalls an NCO with the 205 squadron: “Seletar in my memory will always be the Sergeants’ Mess during a night air raid. The sirens would go — the old Far East types would make for the air raid shelters — the ex Med/UK types would collect all the beer from evacuated tables and have a thoroughly enjoyable night!”

The British countered the Japanese with their Vildebeestes and Catalinas, but they were losing and by the end of January there was an exodus of British aircraft. All except the valiant Volunteer Air Force, who flew tiny unarmed and vulnerable light aircraft (Moths and Cadets) on daily reconnaisance patrols out of Seletar. The bombed airbase was full of craters, and airmen and civilian workers alike slowly left.

It is believed that the Japanese took over an empty and desolate aerodrome at noon on February 14th, 1942, a day before the eventual surrender of Singapore.

During the Japanese occupation, the same civilian workers came back to their jobs under the Japanese. Apparently they were treated better than the rest of Singapore (that is, there was no shooting or beheading) but still, life was hard. Japanese sailors lived in the barrack blocks and married quarters (the houses on the airbase) and their local girl friends lived in small attap bashas. There was also a brothel about 15 minutes walk from the gates, with girls specially brought in from Japan. All in all, there were about 2000 Japanese in 1943, many living in tents on the base.

After the war, the local civilians cleared up the neglected base, cutting the wild and snake-infested grass. The RAF came back in but things were tense. The war-weary airmen still had to live in tented camps, and there was a communist-inspired 48 hour strike.

After the war the airbase’s role was to house anti-pirate patrol squadrons. The planes also took part in the Malayan war, noting the boat movements of communist forces, bombing targets in Malaya.

In other news, a bear lived on the base, the pet of an Australian prisoner-of-war. In peacetime, the sportsfield, pool and two cinemas became fully utilised. There was a theatre, which was destroyed by fire in 1963.

In 1965 Singapore became independent. In 1966 the base was handed back to the Singapore armed forces.

Seletar Airbase residents hope to keep its rustic charm
Suggestions include alternative access routes, efficient use of open spaces and buildings
Goh Chin Lian, The Straits Times, June 12, 2006
THE old Seletar Airbase will be turned into an aerospace hub in nine years, but residents like Mr Harpreet S. Nehal are hoping for a say in how this tranquil sanctuary can greet the future without losing its charm.

Suggestions include building an access for vehicles entering and leaving the future hub separate from the one residents and golfers now use, as well as a more efficient use of existing open spaces and unoccupied buildings.

Driving The Straits Times around Seletar recently, the Singaporean director of law firm Drew & Napier pointed out where he and some 15 fellow residents think a separate entrance would be ideal:

It is near Seletar Dam, on the west side of the airbase and close to Seletar Airport, where new facilities for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul are expected to come up cheek-by-jowl with the existing 30 or so aerospace companies.

A separate access will keep heavy vehicles clear of the 305 black-and-white, colonial rented houses on the east side, an area which could also be used for non-industrial purposes such as the proposed regional aviation training campus.

Mr Nehal, who has lived in Seletar for three years, also identified empty plots of land, abandoned hangars and unoccupied Defence Ministry buildings that could make way for the hub.

Aviation offices could be moved from single-storey buildings to new two- or three-storey ones to maximise space, he suggested.

During the tour, he also pointed out empty bungalows that could become wine bars and alfresco dining places, to create a buzz like that at the popular but hard-to-find Sunset Grill and Pub, where patrons savour buffalo wings as the sun sets over the air strip.

‘You can still preserve the character and ambience of this place without turning it into another Tuas,’ said Mr Nehal, 40.

The $60 million masterplan of the Economic Development Board and JTC Corporation will be finalised at the end of the year.

What is now known is that the new Seletar Aerospace Park will cover 140ha – the size of more than 100 football fields – and that the authorities will look into retaining the charm, greenery and heritage of the former Royal Air Force base.

Golfers worry about the future of the Seletar Base Golf Club’s nine-hole public course, which borders Seletar Airport.

They think it will be a pity to close it down because the trees there are all mature, and playing there is affordable – at between $30 and $40 to play on its greens, and even less for members at $130 or less a year.

Businessman Danny Leow, 50, who visits the course six days a week, hopes some parts of it can stay and be adapted for a smaller course.

For now, the airbase remains a green haven of open fields and narrow streets with quaint names like Hyde Park Gate, Oxford Street and Piccadilly.

It is also home to four flying schools and clubs, the Singapore Armed Forces’ School of Logistics and a military camp for combat engineers.

It is also a nature sanctuary. The Nature Society’s conservation committee chairman Ho Hua Chew says grey herons are known to nest in the casuarina trees in the military compound.

The only other nesting site for these birds is at the Tanah Merah Golf Course, he said, adding that a count and survey of the bird population ought to be done for Seletar.

Residents also testify to the ‘zoo’ in their neighbourhood – they have kingfishers, monitor lizards, spitting cobras and paradise tree snakes for company.

This closeness to nature was what Madam Chandra Shanmugam, 37, and her property manager husband Ravi Chandran wanted for their children, aged five and two.

They gave up their four-room HDB flat in Serangoon North to become tenants in their semi-detached house in Seletar two years ago, and pay $1,500 a month in rent.

She said: ‘We didn’t want the children to be cooped up all day. We wanted the open space for them to roam around and climb trees.’

Residents also revel in the sense of community. Doors are kept open. Home owners put in side gates in their fences so neighbours can walk right through.

Whether all this will come to an end when the residents’ leases expire on Dec 31, 2008, remains to be seen. They hope development will be gradual, and that they will not be asked to leave, only to have the land stand empty for years.

Mr Nehal, whose neighbours include Dutch, Germans, Filipinos, Americans, French, Malaysians as well as Singaporeans, said: ‘One cannot manufacture bohemia. It exists in Seletar and should be left to thrive.’