Dexta,
Please don't make the mistake of believing every country airfield is owned and operated by the council. We have TO PAY the council many thousands of dollars for the privilege of running an airport. We provide a sealed strip, two grass strips, PAL, lounge, good clean toilets, snacks etc and we still get people who bitch about a $10 landing fee!
Remember that there are private airfields all over the country that get no government or council grants and have to recoup the cost of maintenance somehow.
At the risk of further thread drift;
I occasionally here comments from staff of Council run airports that the nominal $10 LF falls way short of covering the cost of running an airport and the Council dips into general revenue to fund the balance. They see this as the price the community pays for the benefit of having a town airport, as Mostlytossas pointed out.
But as you pointed out many are private such as Goolwa, can I ask how you do it with out compromising commercial in confidence details. I would imagine that $10/landing is not much unless the airport is particularly active which I suspect Goolwa is.
I am sorry to hear the Council charges you to provide an airport, I can understand the charge for rates, but would have thought they would more than compensate with some form of an operating budget back to you.
Does your airport get regular visitation from RFDS flights transferring local community members to Adelaide or offer fire bombing access or water facilities?
If this is something that you feel is to sensitive for a general forum I understand.