Chinese want to buy Renmark airport

[Obidiah]

According to a recent media release from the Renmark/Paringa council which circulated through ABC local news, the Council has been approached by an Australian, Chinese and Asian group with an intent to buy the airport.

Sino Australian Clean Energy Co. has put a proposal before the Council whereby this company is proposing to buy the Renmark airport. Their intention is to upgrade it to an international airport and use it as a hub to air freight local produce and seafood (YREN is 300km from Adelaide, the nearest ocean) direct to off shore markets, likely mostly China.

Interestingly a number of local fruit growers were kept in the loop by Council as to this proposal, bar one small detail, that is the sale of the airport.

Their other intention is to base a 400 student capacity international flying school at Renmark.

Personally I fail to see any merit in these proposals but I do see a number of worrying outcomes.

None of the presently grown produce or likely future local horticultural produce has a particularly short shelf life, urgency of delivery is not really relevant. Produce from the SA Riverland is only a few hours by truck to Adelaide airport, and trucks are good for local employment. Furthermore it would seem likely that if this were to go ahead it would follow that there will be increased market opportunities and with it $$$ incentives to local growers. This would only further increase lobbying pressure upon governments to release more water from the struggling Murray river system for horticultural interests. All this at a time when we are struggling to restore the natural health of the Murray through the much needed increased water flows it requires to function in a healthy state.

I suspect a Chinese company and their government don't much recognise that the health of our major river system is at all important as they go about developing food security for their growing and increasingly affluent population.

It would seem to me that if this were to develop and the region geared up to supply produce direct to China then there would be considerable interest from Chinese groups in wishing to buy out local growers. This has already started to happen around this region.

My understanding is that when a Chinese entity purchases an overseas land asset that after 3 years the ownership (lease) of that asset reverts back to the Chinese State, I might be wrong on this though.

As for an international flying school, this worries me too.

Parafield airport has been shrinking in activity year by year and now appears perilously close to being unviable. The loss of a capital city GA airport would be a major blow to GA and particularly South Australian GA.

The setup of a large international flying school away from what should be the prime location, Parafield, will only serve to further weaken its viability.

Unless there is an active plan to re-establish a close to the city GA airport this plan is just plain dangerous.

I wonder how many of this 400 strong flying school student base might find themselves working for minimal wages on local farms perhaps owned or influenced by Chinese interests.

I certainly hope we have enough collective intellectual acumen to resist all this and stay very much in control of our food production and not head down a path of further decimating our fragile ecosystem in an unsustainable but seemingly lucrative pursuit to feed a global population that hell is bent on increasing.

[Stanwell]

Thanks for that post, Obidiah.
I share your concern.
It would seem, though, that our current government policy dictates that we unquestioningly welcome what's euphemistically called "Foreign Investment".
I've been watching, with some alarm, the effective sale of our key infrastructure assets (such as ports) to Chinese government controlled interests.
Hello? Is anybody awake?

[muddergoose]

https://www.renmarkparinga.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=465&c=15766

Maybe that explains the state government's logic investing millions in airports in Victoria, especially when GA is being strangled by over regulation and relulatory cost increases in Australia. Of course, the economic benefit to the community will auger well for the success of Sino proposal.

[Ultralights]

i remember an old instructor at Nerranderra many years ago stating that the chinese approached the local council to upgrade the runway to take up to B747 freighter aircraft, so they could fly animals directly from the feed lots at Leeton, direct to china.

[gerry111]

On Saturday, I drove along the Canola Highway from Grong Grong to Old Junee. Somewhere along the route is a large sign advertising a joint Australia-China agricultural project. None of China's massive interest in Australian agriculture is particularly secret.

[LLuCCiFeR]

Be careful of Chinese buying airports, the Germans had a rude awakening when some Chinese 'investor' (apparently an ex (?) Yangtze River pilot) offered to buy Frankfurt Hahn airport in a bidding process orchestrated by KPMG: Chinese company buys ailing Frankfurt Hahn Airport | Business | DW.COM | 06.06.2016 (http://www.dw.com/en/chinese-company-buys-ailing-frankfurt-hahn-airport/a-19310136)

The whole thing turned out to be a complete fraud, the Chinese 'company' was more or less nonexistent and now the Germans are threatening to sue the Chinese 'investors,' unfortunately I can't find any links in English.

Here are some links in German, run them through Google Translate in order to get a rough idea of what happened;

Investment company untraceable, Hahn buyer becomes more dubious (http://www.swr.de/landesschau-aktuell/rp/investmentfirma-weiter-unauffindbar-hahn-kaeufer-wird-immer-dubioser/-/id=1682/did=17687138/nid=1682/6upnzb/)

Nobody knows who bought Frankfurt Hahn Airport (http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article156046244/Niemand-weiss-wer-den-Flughafen-Frankfurt-Hahn-gekauft-hat.html)

and

Frankfurt Hahn causes rumours. (http://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/hessen-weist-zweifel-an-chinesischen-flughafen-hahn-kaeufer-zurueck-14278998.html)

[gulliBell]

The Chinese bought Merredin airport, and they occupy space at Jandakot Airport, and employ Australian staff, and fly 40 thousand hours per year. As far as I know these arrangements work well.

[Stanwell]

gulliBell,
For the moment, for certain people. :ok:

[Desert Flower]

As far as a flying school goes they would be better off utilising Leigh Creek. Everything is there as far as empty houses go - no need to build more.

[On eyre]

Yes but have you got a Chinese takeaway DF ?

[gulliBell]

These Chinese students are far more likely to be living off 2 minute noodles than anything bought from a Chinese takeaway.

[On eyre]

Agreed gB but wanted response from the local DF lol.

[Desert Flower]

Yes but have you got a Chinese takeaway DF ?
Not as such On Eyre, but I could whip up a mean stir fry for them! ;)

[On eyre]

DF 😄👍 - new business opportunity !

[Desert Flower]

DF 😄👍 - new business opportunity !
Lol yes - could well be! Quite a few former YLEC pilots could attest to the quality of Rosie's Takeaways! ;)

[Dick Smith]

Australians need to get an approval from the Chinese owners of Merredin to land there.

[gerry111]

"Australians need to get an approval from the Chinese owners of Merredin to land there."

I think that's perfectly reasonable. Just as prior permission is required to land at your private property at Gundaroo.

[Timocracy]

You mean the 'Chinese and Canadian' owners of Merredin?

So someone wants to spend a ton of money upgrading a dying rural airport, train 400 students ($150,000+ a pop = $60million/year). Engineering firms will expand, hire apprentices. They'll need a heap of instructors including a single, multi and high performance areas. They're going to need accomodation, food, transport. So what does everyone do? They poo poo the idea, bet they're the same people complaining GA is dead.

Everyone complains when the farmers can't afford to stay on the land, now we have a opportunity to sell fruit directly to a market that is willing to pay a massive premium(ask over at the fragrant harbour forum how much Aussie fruit is worth). What do we do? Try to stop the deal, wouldn't want to our goods at a higher price would we? We'd rather the farmers go broke so we can sell the land to them later for peanuts anyway.

Foreign ownership of Australian land is a completely different issue that needs to be addressed But this is more then likely a ****hot deal for everyone. Let's not let a little racism get in the way.

[Obidiah]

Timocracy,

You can read, just not to well, Renmark airport is not dying and I support the fruit growers. If the market is there then we should seize the opportunity without selling our asset base in the process. Keeping in mind that right now fruit growers are facing water restrictions, no water no produce.

Nothing wrong with an international flying school, but it would serve the state and GA better if it were at Parafield, same money just different location.

Trust that clarifies.

[Biggles_in_Oz]

One of the proposals is to ... extend the main runway to develop an export hub for high-value low volume produce to export to affluent overseas markets

Rwy 07/25 at YREN is currently 1740m.
I am curious as to
a) what sort of a/c would be used to reach those overseas destinations,
and
b) by how much would they need to extend the rwy to achieve a).

[Shagpile]

Vertical integration.

They need processing, packaging & transport to ship goods straight back to China.

[Trevor the lover]

"On Saturday, I drove along the Canola Highway from Grong Grong to Old Junee. Somewhere along the route is a large sign advertising a joint Australia-China agricultural project. None of China's massive interest in Australian agriculture is particularly secret."

I grew up in Junee - please please please can we sell it to the chinese, and please can they pack it all up and take it to China with all its resident ferals. Please!

[TBM-Legend]

The TWB grapevine suggests that there will be maybe three freighter flights a week from Wellcamp to "China" in the foreseeable future.

[Stanwell]

Thank you, Trevor.
Your post lightened an otherwise dull day.

I then read a little earlier that somebody had screamed 'racist' in an attempt to draw attention to his point of view.
We need more people like that. :ok:

[Desert Flower]

Timocracy,

You can read, just not to well, Renmark airport is not dying and I support the fruit growers. If the market is there then we should seize the opportunity without selling our asset base in the process. Keeping in mind that right now fruit growers are facing water restrictions, no water no produce.

Nothing wrong with an international flying school, but it would serve the state and GA better if it were at Parafield, same money just different location.

Trust that clarifies.
Funny that the fruit growers are facing water restrictions, because the Murray River is starting to flood. Lock 7 (upstream from Renmark) has all the boards out & water is flowing straight through. Lock is expected to be completely submerged in two weeks. Hope to see it this coming weekend!

DF.

[youngmic]

Significant resent improvements around 90% allocation at the moment, had been desperately lower a few months back with advice that some grape growers may need to consider their future.

[Desert Flower]

Significant resent improvements around 90% allocation at the moment, had been desperately lower a few months back with advice that some grape growers may need to consider their future.
There are many grape growers considering just walking off their properties because they can't sell their grapes.

DF.

[youngmic]

It is wine grapes that are in over supply and the Chinese don't want our wine, not yet anyway.

Things went belly up thanks largely to a massive increase in plantings by major corporations cashing in on the boom 15 years back. Couple that with our high production costs compared to our South African and South American competitors and the over allocation of water rights which had to be pulled back and thus drove water prices through the roof. This combination has resulted in wine grape production being borderline viable. The big corporate wine grape growers had the links to secure winery contracts but the small grape grower was often unable to secure a contract.

When this scenario plays out often all you can do is turn the tap off and sell your water.

Malthusian principles of greed I guess.

[CaptainMidnight]

There was a proposal some years back by local Sunraysia business people to extend one of the RWYs at Mildura to take up to 747 sized aircraft, both to theoretically fly local fruit produce including from S.A. direct to overseas markets, and fly in tourists.

The parties then became aware that it wasn't simply a RWY extension exercise, but an upgrade of the airport to international standard was required, with the associated Customs, AQIS & Immigration presence, airport security upgrade etc. etc., and the proposal died.

However the Chinese would probably have the money to make this all happen somewhere if they deemed it worthwhile :)