Gawler Airfield began on the 4^th of April 1942 with the start of a runway construction using compacted limestone gravel quarried from north west of the airfield. The runway construction was completed on the 31st July 1942. This 45 degree runway was lengthened and sealed with bitumen in November 1942. The number 8 Airfield Construction and the number 11 Works Supply Units were based at Gawler from 11^th January to 16^th March 1943. Laying of the 130 degree runway commenced on the 1st of February 1943 using cement stabilized limestone gravel.

The airstrip was only sparingly used during the war years. No 86 Squadron, flying Curtiss Kittyhawks was formed at Gawler on the 4^th of March 1943 and left on the 1st of May for Ross River near Townsville en-route to Merauke New Guinea. No 21 Squadron flying Vultee Vengeance aircraft was reformed at Gawler on the 13^th of September 1943 and operated from there until the 25^th November, when they left for Lowood near Brisbane en-route to Nadzab New Guinea. Avro Anson Aircraft from No 6 Service Flying Training School at Mallala used the strip for practice landings at the end of 1943.

The Control Tower (or duty pilot's tower) was a bush timber structure positioned north of the intersection of the runways. The aircraft refuelling bays were at the western end of the 130 degree runway and at the northern end of the 45 degree runway. Hideouts for the aircraft were planned under trees to the north west of the airstrip and roads were to be closed and used as taxiways, only two hideouts were actually constructed.

The most interesting part of Gawler Airfield history is the communications base established there in June 1944, and the underground concrete buildings constructed for that purpose. The headquarters communications centre was a nissan hut shaped building constructed of one foot thick re-inforced concrete and was 136 feet long by 30 feet wide, completely underground near the river bank on the opposite side of the bypass to where the trotting track is now. "The Underground" as it was commonly known, had twelve AR7 communications receivers and teletypes installed which were operated by WAAFs around the clock, who marched to and from the campsite at Willaston at the change of duty rosters. Other equipment in the underground was a telephone switchboard, PMG equipment for the transmission lines and a Hodson and Gault emergency power generator. The aerials were strung from a windmill tower and two timber masts being disguised as trees.

The transmitting station was situated three miles west of the airfield along the Two Wells road of similar construction but only semi-underground. Transmitters installed were AWA ATS & AT13, STC AT8 and TASMA AT14, there were two Hodson & Gault emergency power generators which consisted of a Ford V8 petrol engine driving a 25Kw 3 phase alternator. The aerials were two 120 foot steel latice towers with the non-directional beacon aerial at the top and three Rhombic antennas supported on 60 foot timber masts (rhombic antennas are a diamond shaped aerial which produced greater signal strength from the long axis of the aerial) plus some dipole antennas. A similar building was constructed north of the airfield near the junction of Clancy road and the road to Mallala. This was to have been a remote receiver station but had not been completed when the war ended. The antennas at that site were nine rhombics, forming a nine pointed star around the station and were switchable giving eighteen points of maximum signal strength. A concrete water tank shaped building south of the intersection of the runways housed a Radio Direction Finder (RDF) which was used for locating aircraft from their radio transmissions. Before radar was developed the only way of locating aircraft was by taking bearings from its radio transmissions from two or more of the direction finding stations with known positions and to plot the angles on a map to the intersection point. The Gawler RDF was mainly used as a landing aid in poor visibility conditions but was used over very long distances once when a Catalina on a 28 hour flight over the Indian Ocean became overdue. Bearings were taken from RDFs at Perth, Darwin and Gawler locating the aircraft off course due to compass errors and were able to guide the Catalina safely to base. There were six smaller underground bunkers along the river bank which were used as bomb stores and another underground building housed an electricity transformer supplying the communications centre. The last one is an above ground bunker on the south/west corner of the airfield used for an emergency power plant for the airstrip and the RDF.