Back in the late 70's, early 80's my father along with Roger Meridue and Keith Hatfield were asked along with some personal from the local council's to look at possible location of an airport in the south east region and Monomeith was settled upon, there is an old WW2 airfield there that was made for US bombers but never made operational, They flew up to about 7000 feet and the runways could be clearly seen under the grass. The runway alignments take into consideration the high ground in the vicinity apparently.
The council personal at the time wanted it to be located at Clyde but my father, Rog. etc knew that that area would be built up in years to come and would impinge on any future airport there.
This is certainly nothing new-
http://www.invest.vic.gov.au/news-an...ias-south-east -stating that it is a pledge by the Andrews government seems to me to be just a perpetual run of plans and announcements dating back some 40yrs!
I guess it will have to happen sooner or later given the growth of Melbourne.