Ballarat, 100,000+ population plus thousands more in surrounding towns, it's own tourist attractions, 40km from Daylesford, close to the Pyrenees wine region, Grampians not far away and many other attractions and surrounding towns for feeder loads. As above if the local council had kept the long runway and not sold it for housing they could have a quite nice jet capable airport now with some tourist spots to support it. To put it in perspective the combined population of Albury/Wodonga is still less than Ballarat. There would definitely be a viable load base for direct Sydney and Brisbane flights and close enough to Melbourne to drag passengers there for lower cost, with reasonable bus/train and road connections to make it work.
Looking at the sat pictures it would still be quite easy to add 800 mtrs to the effective length of 18/36 by building over Airport road to the south up to the rail line. Not sure the residents to south would like the idea though. What a missed opportunity, with the high speed rail line being built to Ballarat it would have not cost much more to run it further out to the Airport and make it a true secondary/tertiary option for Melbourne residents.
Last edited by 43Inches; 22nd Mar 2022 at 05:21.