Year 1928

Ponggol Zoo Opened

Monday, 31st December 1928

The Ponggol Zoo, situated at 10.5 mile Ponggol Road, by the sea. The 27-acre plot of land was purchased earlier in the year by Mr. William Lawrence Soma Basapa. Within 3 months, Mr Basapah converted a patch of mangrove swamp into an attractive zoo. It costed Mr Basapah about $30 a month to run it and he charges an entry free of $0.40 per person. The Zoo is laid out by the seaside promenade with a family rest house and cages that hold the animals. Some of the animals and birds were previously housed in Mr Basapah's large family bungalow in Upper Serangoon Road since 1922. Other animals were from all over the world like the Pelican from Australia, Lamas from India, Cappibara Pig from South American, Orang Utan from Borneo, Hakata Maru from South Africa and the monkey-eating eagle from Philippines.


Seletar Air Base received its first Flying Boats

Tuesday, 28th February 1928

The first planes to arrive at the base were four Supermarine Southampton seaplanes. The 4 Flying Boats of the Far East Flight who had completed a landmark journey from Britain. Seletar was commissioned as a RAF Station in Jan 1930. When the civilian airport at Kallang opened in June 1937, RAF Seletar became a purely military airfield housing flying boats like the Short Singapore and Sunderland, torpedo-boats like the Vickers Vildebeeste. The airfield, with an oval-shaped grass landing strip, became home to land-based torpedo aircraft.


The Johor-Singapore Causeway Opened

Friday, 20th January 1928

The Johor-Singapore Causeway is a 1,056-metre causeway that links the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia across the Straits of Johor to the town of Woodlands in Singapore. It serves as a road, rail, and pedestrian link, as well as water piping into Singapore.


RAF Arrived At Seletar

Wednesday, 11th January 1928

The RAF Team of the Far East Flight arrived in in a partially completed Seletar Aerodome in four Supermarine Southamption "flying boats" also known as sea-planes. The Group was led by Captain Henry Cave-Brown-Cave and Squadron Leader Gerry Livock. In 1924, Gerry made an air survey of Seletar.