It is very sad Dick.
But when our airports were farmed out to property developers and loan shark banks to be expected.
With a rapacious regulator and what seems a government powerless to contain or control their excesses It looks like GA is finished in Australia.
People are just giving up, its all getting too hard.
Average age of engineers now in the fifties, very few young people prepared to invest their time and dollars into taking apprenticeship even if they could find someone to take them on, only people with your resources will be able to afford to fly.
I would love to be in a position to toss it in, get away from CAsA's incompetence and bully boys.
There's always Kiwiland every now and then for a flying fix. Beautiful scenery, great rule set and no CAsA, over there you can enjoy your flying and I would recommend anyone thinking of learning to fly to head there, you will enjoy the experience and save yourself a lot of money, and its safer to.