From serving airmen to serving local families

Yew Heng arranging the old plaques decorating the interior of Butterworth Cafe in Butterworth.

IT was a favourite dining spot for the Australian air force over half a century ago and remains very much a top stop for locals now. Nothing much has changed in Butterworth Cafe.

Opened in 1958, the cafe used to be a popular pub-cum-eatery, serving western and local food to personnel from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) who took over the Butterworth airbase from the British a year earlier.