Not sure about Regional Pacific but didn't Macair start CNS-NPE runs before they went tits up? Also Skytrans looked at going to Bamaga way back when they first started operating the Dash 8's. I remember they did a flying tour of the whole Cape area checking the viability of operating into these airports.
Thread drift someone once told me that the Bamaga/NPE runway was built to handle aircraft no bigger than EMB120 in the Flight West days to stop any competition operating in there. My question is is the Dash8-100 MTOW heavier,lighter or roughly the same as a Braz?
At least the locals will be happy!!