Your'e talking about an airport that "perhaps" has the pavement strength to handle a 737. I'll bet the cash went on X-Ray machines and fences.
Coffs Harbour can handle a 737. I've flown there regularly by those means. It's got trains, bus terminals and hotels. How would either cope with an A380?
The $25 million wouldn't have come from The NSW Govt, they are BROKE having inherited a significant burden from past incumbants. One can guess it has come via the taxpayer, (of which I am one), and possibly as a result of DOT/CASA infrastructure handouts from their mountains of cash gathered by a oft used catch cry, "SAFETY".
As for Alice Springs, it's closer to Perth than Orange. It's closer to Adelaide than Orange, and it's closer to Darwin than Orange.
Exactly where do the spokes that radiate from Orange go in the International sense?