What's happening at Evans Head?
Join Date: Aug 1998
Location: Ex-pat Aussie in the UK
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It's also pretty weird - I mean, when aircraft damage themselves at an airport it's normally some type of landing accident, well away from other buildings.
Yes, there's hangar rash and taxi accidents, but they are all pretty low speed (i.e. almost impossible to be in the tens of millions in damage).
I wonder what event they think they are insuring against?
Yes, there's hangar rash and taxi accidents, but they are all pretty low speed (i.e. almost impossible to be in the tens of millions in damage).
I wonder what event they think they are insuring against?
"It is absolutely standard and prudent for an organisation which owns or operates a facility to require someone who wants to the use that facility to have a prudent level of insurance for third party liability. It is likely to be a requirement of their own public liability insurer."
All I can add is that worldwide this is becoming more and more the norm - the rise of legal firms on a no win no fee basis means everyone reaches for the lawyers if anything happens - and they go looking for people to sue. The requirements are often buried deep in the T&C's you sign up for.
All I can add is that worldwide this is becoming more and more the norm - the rise of legal firms on a no win no fee basis means everyone reaches for the lawyers if anything happens - and they go looking for people to sue. The requirements are often buried deep in the T&C's you sign up for.
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: Brisbane, Qld, Australia
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601, you mean there is a little man who comes out to check your insurance?
I wonder what event they think they are insuring against?
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Originally Posted by extralite
Wrote about this back in the day. This airfield with infrastructure, at least covering 100 hectares and a lot of it prime development land in a booming north coast tourist town, was sold quietly by Richmond Valley Council for less than the cost of many houses in the town. Just under $3m. (You can find the sale price buried in the council minutes of the time about 4 years ago. Like barely a few paragraphs.)
There was no recent public tender for this public asset. No advertising that it was for sale. It was sold to a party of just a few guys (maybe just 2) that it quietly negotiated with. There was a heritage listing in the original agreements, but somehow the details of that are now a bit murky and appear to be very watered down. The gates went up on the airport shortly after it was sold and most of the tenants booted from their hangars. These were only low impact flyers...a few gyros, a few RA aircraft etc.
I am no lawyer, but the fact that this didn't go to tender, wasn't advertised, and sold for what is blatantly millions below market value seemed a breach of process to me. Sale of public assets are supposed to go to tender and this is the process that is supposed to be followed: . https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/wp-conten...nment-2009.pdf
So i wrote to NSW ICAC and also the Council for Local Government. Well you can guess the response. They would rather sit on their asss's and collect a salary then do their actual job. Why bother? Unless it is in the media and there is political pressure, why would you look at it? ICAC won't look at anything unless you can prove corruption which for the average person would be impossible...and also isn't that their job? If nothing else, it is very "odd".
Ultimately a very small group of people got their hands on a lot of development land for peanuts and are now are very wealthy because of it. They don't want the airfield used,. And the public? They lost a public asset and they got very little money for the community in return.
There was no recent public tender for this public asset. No advertising that it was for sale. It was sold to a party of just a few guys (maybe just 2) that it quietly negotiated with. There was a heritage listing in the original agreements, but somehow the details of that are now a bit murky and appear to be very watered down. The gates went up on the airport shortly after it was sold and most of the tenants booted from their hangars. These were only low impact flyers...a few gyros, a few RA aircraft etc.
I am no lawyer, but the fact that this didn't go to tender, wasn't advertised, and sold for what is blatantly millions below market value seemed a breach of process to me. Sale of public assets are supposed to go to tender and this is the process that is supposed to be followed: . https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/wp-conten...nment-2009.pdf
So i wrote to NSW ICAC and also the Council for Local Government. Well you can guess the response. They would rather sit on their asss's and collect a salary then do their actual job. Why bother? Unless it is in the media and there is political pressure, why would you look at it? ICAC won't look at anything unless you can prove corruption which for the average person would be impossible...and also isn't that their job? If nothing else, it is very "odd".
Ultimately a very small group of people got their hands on a lot of development land for peanuts and are now are very wealthy because of it. They don't want the airfield used,. And the public? They lost a public asset and they got very little money for the community in return.
It'd be one thing if the airfield's presence was a nuisance, and perhaps it is as far as developers and some NIMBYs are concerned. But from visiting in/around the township more than a few times I always felt that Evans Head was part of the town's identity and that folks were proud of the heritage there. Maybe that's just some cognitive bias on my part?
