 In September 1946, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Jones, proposed reducing the five extant mainland area commands (North-Western, North-Eastern, Eastern, Southern, and Western Areas) to three: Northern Area, covering Queensland and the Northern Territory; Eastern Area, covering New South Wales; and Southern Area, covering Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. The Federal government rejected the plan and the wartime area command boundaries essentially remained in place (although NWA no longer covered the Dutch East Indies).
