Bore Sight Range and Compass Swinging Platform at Charters Towers Airfield

The Bore Sight Range and Compass Swinging Platform are a heritage-listed pair of aircraft testing facilities at Charters Towers Airport, Charters Towers, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. They were built from 1942 to 1943. They are also known as Charters Towers WWII Airfield Gun Firing Range and Compass Swinging Station. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 May 2010.HistoryCharters Towers Airfield was constructed for the United States Army in early 1942 to provide dispersal facilities for the main Townsville air base at Garbutt, in the event of Japanese air raids during World War II. During 1942 the US 3rd Bombardment Group was based at Charters Towers while undertaking strikes against Japanese bases in the south-west Pacific. From 1943 the airfield served as a US aircraft replacement and training centre. Facilities constructed during this period which remain include a bore sight range (a gun firing range used to check the alignment of the fixed guns of an aircraft) and a compass swinging station (used to check for magnetic deviation in an aircraft compass).