A little more than a week before the release of the Aviation White Paper, the local government of Queanbeyan is pushing ahead with a housing development that would shut down the expansion of neighbouring Canberra Airport.
It is a very NSW story, where developers rule and to hell with the consequences, even for the national capital, from which Queanbeyan, just across the ACT border, derives crucial economic activity.
It is also a planning and development case study par excellence.
Queanbeyan City Council has proposed the rezoning of rural land, which will allow between 2000-5000 homes to be built at Tralee.
There are plenty of other opportunities to create housing estates elsewhere near Queanbeyan.
But the reality of Tralee is that because of strict noise rules already applying to aircraft movements over Canberra and Queanbeyan, its rural splendour is the main conduit for flight paths that avoid the built-up areas.
Building on Tralee conforms to the institutionalised cretinism of NSW planning’ processes, which is essentially what the federal government, AirServices Australia, Qantas and, surprise, the owners of Canberra Airport have all said.
By creating a situation where noise sharing rules by day and a curfew by night would become inevitable, the Tralee development cuts off the proposed development of curfew-free Canberra Airport as a 24 hours air-freight hub serving Sydney as well as the immediate region.
It also threatens the future use of Canberra Airport by medium-sized new technology wide-body jets to provide Sydney bypass flights to South-East Asia, China, Korea and Japan.
There is, however, a wider issue. Without efficient air transport, no city or region can develop its business, tourism and product distribution to their potential, and thus loses access to future growth in jobs and prosperity.
Queanbeyan risks injuring the city that sustains it.
The choice is between having more houses and more economic activity derived from an expanded Canberra Airport, or having housing at Tralee and no such benefits.
But this is NSW. Tralee will go most likely go ahead, and Canberra and Queanbeyan will pay an enormous price.
And it’s not just the Queanbeyan council that’s up to its neck in this. Local state MP Steve Whan has been pushing the ALP and whoever will listen for a curfew styled on Sydney to be placed on Canberra Airport so that these housing developments can go ahead undisturbed by noise from the adjacent airport. Why? Just check out the identity of some of his campaign donors on his election funding returns on the Election Funding Authority website and it becomes pretty clear.
Canberra is just the latest evidence of the truth of Orville’s Law of airports.
Its operation was was first note in Australia with the opening of Tullamarine in Melbourne. The published 50 year vision for airport development featured parallel runways, first south of the 09/27 alignment and later west of the 18/36 alignment. There were even signs on the freeway to the airport celebrating the long term planning of the airport. Nevertheless developers were quick to build the present town ship of Tullamarine and the local council grew fat on the rates. Where is Tullamarine? Right below the planned future 09 Left approach.
Wish I had a solution but as the periodic protests over operations at Essendon give proof, saying the airport has been there since the 1920s cuts no mustard.
I live closer to Canberra than Sydney and have taken up the Queanbeyan City Council’s general invitation to the public to comment on the rezoning by December 22. This has also been posted on Crikey blog Plane Talking this afternoon.
Build the airport, and keep the flight paths going where they are, and when they are. If people are f****** stupid enough to buy land and houses under a flight path, then they deserve all they get. But I hope the developers find that people *won’t* be that stupid, and get left holding the land.
No-one of my acquaintance in Canberra, or Queanbeyan, wants a 24 hour international air freight hub at Canberra airport. Nor do they want 24 hour passenger operations, nor for the airport to become a spillover for Sydney. And as for the jobs generated, we would prefer higher value jobs than packing planes with packages.