"At least someone is doing something about that disaster area at Brisbane airport and surrounds. Let's hope they don't use the same mob for the roads and car parks"

Must be the same people they use at Sydney and Melbourne ? :O

I think we are seeing the start of something that will replicate itslef all over Australia.

Contrary to received wisdom, not all brillance and money must necessarily flow from Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Technologies now facilitate decentralisation. "The Bush" is not short of money and ideas either.

The benfits of doing it yourself include the ability to tell Canberra or Spring Street to go **** themselves.

To the posters who say "great this is going to fic Brisbanes problems and we need a high speed rail link" I say, really? Think the Wagners did this to fix Brisbanes problems? It may be that they intend to bypass Brisbane entirely.

Similar stuff is going on in Victoria. Regions are asking for at least $4.4 bn in infrastructure according to reports - and if the regions keep getting the short end of the stik when it comes to infrastructure they will start being creative exactly like the Wagners.

The capital cities are a mess - stuck in gridlock and smarter people are getting out.

CASA would be "courageaous" not to support and facilitate this development.

emergov

I think you forget that the taxes paid by people DOING stuff is where the priority lies. YBOK should be sold to Wagners for a cheap price and they expand it into a decent airport.

The Army base should be relocated somewhere else, where some employment and growth would be appreciated.

Solves two things at once!

And before you get started, I am 100% about looking after the ADF, in my opinion they are under resourced. I was and should have joined in 85, for some reason I did engineering instead. Fortunately engineering has done well for me and I now pay several times the average wage in taxes each year, and I am annoyed more of it does not go to the ADF. Ohh and Jnr Jaba is part the way there, so I am not about harming the ADF at gain of private industry.

The regions might be asking for 4.4Bn but whether they get it is
a different matter entirely.

Look at Tulla - how many years has it been since a rail link
was first looked at ? And why hasn't a link been built ?
Not sure how true it is but I gather half the reason is the airport
doesn't want a rail link because car parking fees are so lucrative.

Jabbawocky,

I appreciate your position, and in fact I think the Wagner's are on to a good concept here, he certainly has the support of the community, which is convinced it needs a new airport.

But I'm told hundreds of million dollars have been spent on Oakey over the years and that Oakey airspace is unique in Australia - optimised for helo training. We are now cheerfully suggesting government spends that money again because a private company bought some land 10km away from the base and might pay some taxes on future profit.

Good luck to Wagner's, but if CASA kills their proposal, perhaps we could blame a lack of aeronautical chart reading skill rather than blaming Defence for owning an airfield since 1942 and operating the airspace around it for decades.

Yes - Brisbane is one example. What combination does Brisbane have during the worst weather for its location.

Rain, low cloud and SE wind.

Sure the majority of wind is NE/SW. But this occurs mainly during benign weather.

Which way is the main runway aligned.

NE/SW

It is fun breaking out at mimina and looking out of the the other side of the cockpit for the runway.

But when it was built by a Department not versed in aviation, you get what you pay for.

As for Okay, the Army took over a civilian airport and moved everyone else out. Maybe they could have another move.

Speaking of Brisbane: whatever happened to that private GA airport project to compete with / replace Archerfield that was in the news a year or so ago?

bas

Lockyer Valley Airport (see ad on P38 of this month's Aviation Trader)... again another airport that infringes military airspace.

As for Wellcamp the Wagner's need to be commended for their vision and balls to build this. Sure their grandkids might make some money, but the real winner will be the Toowoomba City and surrounding people/businesses that now get a decent airport.

As for Oakey, they can quite easily co-exist and share the small amount of their airspace that Wellcamp needs.

This morning on Sunrise they showed a family member standing in front of a lot of construction equipment. It looked to be full steam ahead.

finalyl the first piece of new infrastructure the country has seen thats actually needed! :ok:

Yes your right.. excellent example. They just built Brisbane airport and when they finished the project they were kicking themselves for not having thought about the wind and the weather first. They must have just completely forgotten about those things. Or maybe they were just inexperienced with airport building and no clever people (like you or Oakape) realised what they were doing until it was too late.

601:

Err, Oakey was built for the RAAF in 1943, initially as a home for 6AD.

I dont get what the big deal is....YBOK can keep their airspace. It is only restricted by name not nature.

I fly through there quite a lot, when active and when not.

emergov......its just not an issue.

Canberra will have its work cut out ensuring this decentralisation thing doesn't get out of hand. It's dangerous stuff, you know!

It's one thing to plan through it on an IFR plan, quite another to need clearance any time you want to do a few circuits. Plus all RA-Aus pilots are not welcome as active restricted areas are to be treated as class C...

Not knowing the location, I can't tell, but of it is at the edge and doesn't infringe IFR approach paths, then I imagine they might be open to doing the same as we have here at Gawler, I nice cut-out with enough altitude to get out VFR without clearance.

Bas it (threshold of Wellcamp Rwy 13) will be about 9 nm bearing 160 from Oakey, and 6 nm west of TWB!

What about the good ole USA? Many towns / cities have numerous airports in very close poximity. What Emergov doesnt get is no one is asking Oakey to shut down and move. All it will take is some planning for turbines and jets (high altitude) to approach over rotary wing (low alt) aircraft. Chuck in weekends and public holidays and it may only be an issue for a very short time each week and when the wind is blowing the wrong way.

Groggie

So after the 747 load of tourists exit the terminal, where do they go? Oh that's right, they wait for the line of buses to take them on the long trip to anywhere else. Or how about the FIFO guy who has to drive to/from TWB or catch the bus before/after catching his flight. Are they hoping they'll all live in Toowoomba instead? Can't see it working. Avalon is different. It's between Geelong and Melbourne, freeway & reasonable public transport in either direction, and is effectively suburban. And still only Jetstar go there. Sure this may capture some FIFO traffic, but Toowoomba is not a realistic alternative to Brisbane. Otherwise everyone would just be using the Gold or Sunny Coast airports now.

I think you are missing the point Traffic

Firstly Toowoomba is a city of over 130,000 people and the second largest inland city in Australia, that has outgrown its tiny airport (which is now surrounded by houses).

A decent airport will attract increased services to Sydney and eventually elsewhere.

In the longer term, like 25+ years, which is where the Wagners are looking there is a real possibility of freighters from Asia.

The planned new airport just happens to be adjacent to the proposed Toowoomba bypass, and once it and the alternate range crossing are built Wellcamp will be closer to Brisbane's western suburbs than the Gold Coast and similar in transit times than Brisbane Airport.

Wellcamp over time could also be a viable alternate for Ipswich.

Keep in mind a lot of agricultural produce is grown (or can be grown) in the area for high value export, including quite a deal for air freight, so as Brisbane continues to grow, particularly in the western and south western areas, Wellcamp will definitely be a viable alternative, particularly if there are cost advantages for distribution and warehousing due lower costs than in Brisbane, plus the prospects for agricultural/horticultural airfreight backloads.

Likewise in the 25 year timeframe the Melbourne - Brisbane inland rail line could well be a reality. http://www.nationbuildingprogram.gov...nd_Railway.pdf This project is far more than a pie in the sky idea. Take a look at the map in the link, it runs right past Wellcamp.

The Wagners are not looking 5 or even 10 years out. These guys are looking past their next generation. Very smart guys!

Do not knock Wagners. They are a local company with international reach. If ever Queensland is going to grow away from the SE corner then infrastructure must be built in this region. Agriculture is but one industry. If the greenies are put in check then the basic ingredient for development....abundant cheap power and water....if you build it, they will come!