August 13, 2010
Fighting the GAAP fight
The battle to maintain Australia’s important aviation infrastructure continues. We’ve had some victories and some losses. But the battle continues in the face of continuing apathy and inaction by all three tiers of government.
Pilots around Australia continue to struggle against a number of local councils trying to close down their local airstrips.
We are also taking it to state governments who pretend this slow degradation of our aviation infrastructure has nothing to do with them and are allowing local councils to get away with ignoring their responsibilities.
And we continue to maintain the pressure on the Federal Government in a bid to make it recognise that the previous government’s sell-off was a terrible error and that it has a responsibility to communities around the country to protect Australia’s heritage and its future.
The decay, which began in regional Australia, is now creeping towards our main GAAP airports. And to keep up the pressure, we need everyone with a vested interest at a GAAP airport (or an opinion) to answer some questions for us.
• Has privatisation been good for aviation businesses at GAAP airports?
• Are GAAP airports becoming ghost towns deliberately?
• Are businesses being forced to move to more aviation friendly airports/councils just to survive?
We need comments from you business operators if you have been gouged by your new masters.
We need to know if your airport owner has closed airport access and roads to make it easier for them to justify selling or leasing parts of the place to non-aviation related businesses.
We need to know if you paid for your own infrastructure and have been expected to hand it over cheaply. Have they approved the development of buildings on the airport which affects your ability to fly there safely? And have they closed a runway just for real estate purposes? Get involved. Have your say.
Help AOPA fight the GAAP fight. Email editor@aopa.com.au
Caloundra
In the last issue of “Australian Pilot” AOPA published a letter detailing the problems faced by the aviation industry at Caloundra Airport in Queensland. The airport is threatened by encroachment from developers, and the Caloundra City Council has refused to extend leases beyond December 2014.
The council has also threatened to close (and possibly move) the airport. This threatens the future of the numerous aviation businesses long established at this airport, at which around 250 people are employed and whose jobs are threatened by these actions. Closure of this airport would be yet another blow to the general aviation community, not just in Queensland, but nationwide, and convey the impression that the White Paper’s statements about airport closures are not intended to be serious.
AOPA’s investigation of this matter has brought to light these important facts:
• Caloundra City Council (CCC) engaged the law firm of Corrs Chambers Westgarth (Brisbane) to investigate the possibility of closing the Caloundra Airport in relation to the 1992 Deed between the Commonwealth and CCC. The review concluded that “permission would have to be obtained from the Minister for Transport and Regional Services to abolish or remove the Aerodrome.”
• On September 8, 2005 Neil Williams, General Manager of Airport Planning and Regulation Branch DOTARS, wrote to CCC as follows: “….the Council is bound by the terms and conditions of the ALOP Deed. ….if the Council intends to close the aerodrome or change its use to the extent that it no longer operates as an aerodrome, it would need to obtain the consent of the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Regional Services beforehand.”
Consequently AOPA has written directly to the Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Mr. Mike Mrdak, to express our concern with the fact that the Caloundra City Council is already in violation of the terms of the lease, and to express our concern that should these matters not be addressed a third tier of government (in this case Caloundra City Council) will have flouted binding ALOP Deeds made with the Commonwealth. AOPA is hopeful that the Secretary will take action to prevent this.
The ‘Save Caloundra Airport’ organisation has been very helpful in providing AOPA with the two documents mentioned above. In particular I wish to thank Miles Davis, Peter Newman, and Tony Lusk.
Kempsey Airport saved
After a long and sometimes bitter struggle Kempsey Council on the New South Wales north coast has finally listened to its community and decided not to close the airport after all. It has announced instead that it will try to lease the airport. Expressions of interest closed in June.
In its advertising you’d never have guessed a few months earlier, the council considered the airport to be worthless. “Kempsey Airport is strategically located on the Pacific Highway, midway between Sydney and Brisbane, with an ideal climate and coastal location. “Kempsey and surrounds provide a population base of approximately 30,000 with the opportunity of easy access to larger populations both to the north and south of the airport.
“The facility boasts a 1650 metre sealed strip, originally constructed for air force use, located on 132 hectares of land, much of which is still available for lease. Currently, there is also a passenger terminal which may suit start up of operations from the site while a business is being established.
“The airport is currently home to a number of local flyers, an aero club and one well-established local business. The lack of regular passenger services and congestion means that the facility can offer great flexibility in when, and how often, your necessary flight movements can occur.
“The council is looking to expand on the existing aeronautical industry at the facility.”
Evans Head
The Fox in charge of the henhouse
I don’t know what it is about Richmond Valley Council and aviation but it seems intent on destroying its two airfields, one at Casino and one at Evans Head, both former RPT facilities. The council sold off 120 ha of the Casino airport land (including a terminal building worth $800,000) for $660,000. The sale didn’t go to the market place. It was sold behind closed doors. A month after it was finalised, the property was valued at more than three times the price. Nice deal, if you can get it. Even the developer said so!
We all thought the aerodrome was being sold to a ‘grey nomads’ organisation but it turns out it wasn’t. It was an organisation which appears to be very keen to build houses all over the site. One wonders what will happen to aviation in the long run as houses encroach on the field.
It will be the usual story: noise complaints and pressure to close the airfield. This is in spite of a Transfer Deed over the aerodrome signed with the Feds in 1992 which is supposed to protect regional airfields against land use planning conflicts with aviation noise.
For the record the Deed states: “The Local Authority … shall take such action as is within its power to create land-use zoning around the aerodrome which will prevent residential and other incompatible development in areas which are, or which may be, adversely affected by aircraft noise.”
This Transfer Deed applies to the more than 200 ALOP aerodromes around Australia, with clause 2(p), relating to disposal of land, now removed on the decision of former Minister John Anderson in January 2004.
Yes, Minister Anderson, on the advice of his department agreed local governments could do as they wanted with their aerodromes, but if they were thinking of closing them down, they needed to check with the department before doing so. The Federal Government of the day abandoned regional aviation and the Albanese government seems to be doing the same thing.
One of the interesting things about the Transfer Deed is that only clause 2(p) was declared defunct, not the rest of it. But sadly the Feds have handed over enforcement of the Deed to state and local authorities, a disaster for aviation infrastructure. Local government, strapped for cash, has been selling off its airfields to developers for housing and other inappropriate development without any concern about the fact that they have a conflict of interest, as both owner and consent authority, and without any concern about what they are doing to vital infrastructure. In many cases councils are clueless when it comes to aviation, with not a single flyer among the lot of them. Of course, state government authorities go along with this to get the financially anorexic councils off their backs. Please don’t ask for any money. Just sell your airfield instead.
When Minister Anderson was running his eye over his department’s recommendation that control over ALOP aerodromes be “loosened”, he asked in a hand written note that other bodies such as AOPA and RAAus be contacted for their views. We have checked and they weren’t. So as far as we can determine Minister Anderson signed off on the deregulation deal without any input from GA. Local government was advised of the change to the Deed and the ‘liberalisation’ policy, but GA was kept out of the loop. As far as we can determine, parliament wasn’t advised either – yet it involved a major change in policy and hundreds of millions of dollars (possible billions) worth of valuable aviation infrastructure.
When the Making Ends Meet Report into regional aviation was released in December 2003, it included recommendations to protect and assist regional aviation – particularly those councils which claimed to be struggling to maintain their facilities. Just a couple of weeks later and over the Christmas holiday period, Minister Anderson signed off on the ‘liberalisation’ policy for these very same aerodromes.
For a long time, we tried to find out about the status of the Transfer Deed but we were fobbed off by both politicians and the department responsible for its enforcement. We finally did an FOI. One politician told us it “wasn’t worth the paper it was written on” while the department responsible for its enforcement made it difficult for us to obtain a straight answer. They didn’t answer phone calls and when they did wouldn’t commit to answers in writing. When they did write, the responses were often not very helpful.
So the Transfer Deed stands and should be read by all. But keep in mind, Minister Anderson’s liberalisation policy which the department hides behind.
Double standards
Casino now has a fence across the main runway and houses are being built in the glide path. Richmond Valley Council has also now approved drag racing on the aerodrome and the use of the strip for truck testing. Those activities will no doubt damage the paved strip and the adjacent grass strip.
Astonishingly, the council has even subsidised the drag racing and has not made the organisers submit a Development Application. Those same organisers now plan to run drag racing on the Evans Head airstrip.
From where we sit, the whole process stinks. When we had a 70th Anniversary Celebration of the RAAF at the Heritage Listed Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome last year for World War II veterans who served there, we had to pay for a DA to put in tent pegs and a hire fee for the aerodrome of more than a $1,000 a day.
It was like paying for ANZAC Day (by the way, Richmond Valley Council wanted to charge the local veterans more than $20,000 for an ANZAC Day march a couple of years ago).
The council is still pushing for a nursing home on the Evans Head Aerodrome, 110 metres from the main runway.
Premier Kristina Keneally has approved rezoning of the land but there is still no DA and the highly contaminated site has not been cleaned up.
What’s more, off-aerodrome land owned by council, which could have been used for the nursing home and for which there was an approved DA , is now going up for sale.
Not only will this create a land use planning conflict, but eventually it will be used as an excuse to shorten the main runway.
You have to hand it to Richmond Valley Council. It does have a clear vision for our airfields. Unfortunately that vision doesn’t seem to include aviation.
Former Minister John Anderson has a lot to answer for when he decided to liberalise control over our aerodromes. The current government has also abandoned regional aviation infrastructure to the market place. Local government can apparently do as it pleases and the department does not enforce the Transfer Deed.
The government has effectively put the fox in charge of the henhouse.
Goulburn Airport to be sold
The Goulburn-Mulwaree Council has decided to hand Goulburn Airport over to private enterprise. Colliers International has been appointed to sell or lease the airport. Expressions of interest closed on June 2. The agents described the airport as a “facility registered Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which includes two runways, measuring 1,283 metres and 676 metres in length, with the longer runway resealed in 2009.
“A 20-lot subdivision of hangar sites, which was previously sold by council to individual buyers, sits within the airport boundaries and potential exists for further subdivisions of hangar sites. “The recent approval for the Inland City Aeropark on adjacent land, and the proposed Southern Distribution Hub development nearby, recognises the medium term potential for aviation to integrate with other transport infrastructure.”
Mayor of Goulburn-Mulwaree Council, Carol James, said the council was trying to ensure the facility retained a prime focus as a regional transport hub and that it is capable of expanding its facilities and services to meet the needs of the growing economic sector in the region.
The council acknowledged that part of the land on which the airport is situated has some commercial value for development for non-airport usage, both in the short and long term, subject to the owner’s obligations to the Federal Government in operating the airport.
Goodbye Maroochydore, Hello Sunshine Coast
Maroochydore completed the final stages of a two step process to change its name to Sunshine Coast Airport in June. The aerodrome name, tower call sign, meteorological products such as forecasts etc, NOTAM, airspace and chart titles all changed. Pilots will be expected to call “Sunshine Coast Tower”.
The ICAO location identifier changed from YBMC to YBSU. NAVAID identifiers (VOR, DME, NDB and RNAV (GNSS)) changed from MC to SU. Pilots were advised to amend all their operational documents and other data sources such as operations manuals, route supplements, inflight guides etc.
