[2] The word presumably comes from Daniel Bunce's compilation Language of the Aborigines of the colony of Victoria, where Wirraway is glossed 'challenge; dare, to defy; incite, to stir up; menace, to threaten'.

Typically, fighter versions of the Wirraway were operated over theatres such as New Guinea to perform ground attack missions and other Army co-operation tasks over extended periods until more advanced aircraft had become available in sufficient quantities.

On 12 December 1942, the Wirraway achieved its only shoot-down of an enemy aircraft—thought to be a Mitsubishi A6M Zero at the time, but later determined to be a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa[4]—while flown by Pilot Officer John S. "Jack" Archer.

During the mid-1930s, some political leaders observed that both the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany had the appearance of having been making strides towards a heavy preparedness for war, which in turn led to several other countries commencing their own preparations in response.

[1] Around the same time, the Australian government decided to embark upon the development and expansion of the RAAF into a fighting force capable of defending the nation against external aggressors, in line with recommendations made by a formal evaluation compiled by Sir John Salmond in 1928.

These factors cumulated in a special conference held by the Australian government at which the first plans for syndicate-operated factories to produce both aircraft and aero engines were formulated.

[1] In light of the industrial circumstances, the production of cutting-edge high performance fighter aircraft, such as the Supermarine Spitfire, were viewed as being too ambitious and a potential jeopardy to the whole venture.

[8] The selection was heavily fuelled by the relatively low level of difficulty involved in the manufacture of both the airframe and its Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial engine.

In 1938, an inspection by Sir Edward Ellington of the then in-development Wirraway in 1938 led to him to express his opinion that the type should only serve temporarily in combat roles, and that the choice should be delayed to await the testing of a suitable British aircraft for the mission.

In late June 1938, the Australian government announced that it had placed an order for 40 Wirraways; it stated at the time that the price involved was competitive with comparative imported aircraft.

[10] During 1937, production licences for the type were obtained from North American Aviation along with an accompanying arrangement to domestically produce the Wirraway's Wasp engine from Pratt & Whitney.

This aircraft was subsequently retained by CAC for evaluation and trials for a number of months; on 10 July 1939, the first pair of Wirraways to be delivered to the RAAF, serials A20-4 and A20-5, were received by the service.

[13] During 1940, having observed an excess of Australian capacity, Britain issued an offer to procure any Wirraway airframes that could be produced that had not already been allocated to fulfil RAAF orders, intending to fit US-built Wasp engines to power them.

While these orders were ultimately unmet due to the implementation of the extensive American-led Lend-Lease arrangement, the British government did finance the procurement of aircraft for Australian use within the Empire Air Training Scheme.

During February 1942, the Australian War Cabinet issued its approval for the production of 105 Wirraway interceptors as "reinsurance against [an] inability to obtain fighter aircraft from overseas".

[14] In July 1940, at which point the United Kingdom was the sole European nation fighting against German in the war, the Australian Government issued a statement advising that "from this date onward Australia can rely on England for no further supplies of any aircraft materials or equipment of any kind.

[5] The CA-5, CA-7, CA-8 and CA-9 models were all broadly similar to the CA-3; only the CA-16 variant featured substantial design changes; amongst other purposes, several wing modifications had been made to allow for the carriage of a heavier bomb load, along with the addition of dive brakes for dive-bombing.

[15] The control surfaces were metal-framed with fabric covering; the split-flap arrangement of early Wirraways were supplemented on later-built aircraft via the addition of dive brakes.

The Wirraway was powered by a single 600 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial engine, licence-built by CAC and allowing the aircraft to reach speeds of up to 191 knots.

[13] On 25 August 1939, one month after the first deliveries of the Wirraway had occurred, an official State of Emergency was declared; on 3 September 1939, as the Second World War broke out in Europe, Australia decided to mobilise the entirety of its air force, placing all squadrons on short call for combat operations.

A group of five Wirraways based at Kluang in Malaya for training purposes was pressed into combat against Japanese ground invasion forces; these were generally flown by New Zealanders with Australian observers, and had some successes.

[26] Two weeks later, eight 24 Squadron Wirraways defended the city of Rabaul from over 100 Japanese attacking bombers and fighters, resulting in the destruction or severe damage of all but two of the Australian aircraft.

In this capacity, the Wirraway proved to be fairly suitable; however, due to the risk of being misidentified as a hostile Zero, altitude restrictions were often imposed to deter incidents of friendly fire from Allied anti-aircraft gunners.

[29] Having become known for its versatility, fighter versions of the Wirraway operated over New Guinea for some time on ground attack and other Army co-operation tasks until other RAAF aircraft such as the Boomerang and American Curtiss P-40s were made available in sufficient quantity to replace them.

Post-war the Wirraway continued in RAAF service as a trainer at Uranquinty and Point Cook and was taken on strength by the newly formed RAN Fleet Air Arm in 1948.

After CAC Winjeels started to enter service, the RAAF commenced phasing out its Wirraways on 4 December 1958 with a farewell flypast held at Point Cook to mark its retirement from that base.