Headquartered at Sydney, Central Area Command was responsible for air defence, aerial reconnaissance and protection of the sea lanes within its boundaries.

Prior to World War II, the Royal Australian Air Force was small enough for all its elements to be directly controlled by RAAF Headquarters in Melbourne.

After war broke out in September 1939, the RAAF began to implement a decentralised form of command, commensurate with expected increases in manpower and units.

Headquartered in Sydney, Central Area Command was given control of all Air Force units in New South Wales except those in the southern Riverina and the north of the state.

[6] By August 1941, the RAAF's expanding instructional program necessitated the establishment of overarching training organisations on a semi-functional, semi-geographical basis.

[12] The concept was raised again in August 1944, and this time the new Central Area Command was to control maintenance units, as well as training and operations, in southern Queensland.