by Rod Douglas 

It was one of those mornings... you know the ones… when five kids jumping all over you isn’t even enough to convince you that there is a single good reason to get out of bed. A low dark overcast with squally showers clearly visible on the coast just about convinced me that the weather couldn’t be any different anywhere else.

I was curled up in my comfortable king-sized bed gazing down off the top of the mountain at the very big view through the wide bi-folds that create the ever changing panorama that I wake to every morning. Much of the jumping that was going on was the reminder squad in full voice keeping their agreement to get me up early to make the annual trek to the Great Eastern Fly-In at Evans Heads Memorial Airfield.

Now under most circumstances it takes little to get me out of bed to go flying, or even to go out to the airport where I can at least contemplate flying. This, however, was socked in, black skies, squally wet and worrisome weather. As I looked out I needed to do the mental gymnastics required to change myself from a land loving homebody to a sky leaping flyer to remember that weather in one place has little or no relevance to weather at another place, even if it’s only a couple of hundred kilometres away.

So up I got. Fired up the computer. www.bom.gov.au. It took but a moment to realise that the limitations that almost kept me snuggled in a warm bed as the next rain shower came through didn’t exist in Evans Heads.

Evans Heads Memorial Aerodrome is one of those airfields that somebody managed to put in just the right place. It’s an airfield that is well loved by pilots flying north into bad weather. In one of those inspired decision, in a time before there was lots of science to it, the airfield, with its four crossing runways, was plonked down in a spot that can be counted upon to have a decent ceiling almost always. With crossing runways that can be used in pretty well all weather and wind conditions,  in the past couple of years Evans Heads has been the right place to sit out abysmal weather for me on no less than three occasions when I’ve been flying VFR equipped aircraft north.

It’s also an airfield that Australia in the 21st century is forgetting. It suffers from the blight of many ALOP airfields in that it’s seen as an opportunity for property development by the local council, rather than an historic and critical part of Australia’s network of airfield infrastructure to be treasured and protected. It’s critical in times of crisis, whether that is for the lone VFR pilot flying up the coast where it’s the last landing post before the tumultuous weather of the caldera, or as the staging post for the 14 firefighting aircraft that battled the last big blazes in this area. What about natural disasters? The first response in any natural disaster is to fly in people and emergency supplies.

This is a very valuable aerodrome.

In a time where Australian’s are celebrating the proud past of our war heroes, the ever larger participation in Anzac celebrations and a veritable passion to retrace the Kokoda Trail, Evans Head Memorial Airport is being forgotten by the bureaucracy that should be protecting it and being exploited by elected politicians that should be much more strategically savvy.

Aviation is simply not trendy. Now, when I say that, no one can claim that the dramatic deregulation and significant inflows of capital that have followed the introduction of private ownership into primary airfields has not been a positive stimulant to the enormous capital reinvestment that sees airlines serving many more destination than ever before. For the travelling public that’s been great. Some entire regions have restructured themselves, and their economies, around reinvestment in council owned airports with new terminals attracting the airlines and thousands of tourists.

Who could ever have imagined Ballina, a backwater river town, becoming a major jet hub serving Byron Bay when the tourism gateway of the country, Coolangatta was a mere 30 minutes up the road? So when I say that aviation isn’t trendy, I’m talking about everything except the airline variety, tourism-centric buses of the sky.

In a country that expects every self respecting household to have two cars, it’s extraordinary that people will accept that we should only support the infrastructure that allows you to catch the bus. Fundamentally that’s the way the country is treating our aviation infrastructure.

Imagine if the government suddenly decided that they were only going to support bus ways and rail lines. Would anyone squawk? You bet they would. But with the Rudd government releasing a green paper entitled ‘Flight Path to the Future’ that simply assumes that ‘the free market is the best way to determine what happens’, we sit waiting to see the same sort of market failure that created climate change.

Imagine if the government allowed the ports to be privatized without a requirement that they be operated as ports. How long would it take for some property developer, who operates under the noble creed – ‘land should be used for the highest and best usage possible’ (to generate a profit for the developer) – to take control of the port, close it down and do magical energy ghetto waterfront developments – and end the capacity of the country to export (or import) that which is needed for us to thrive?

Better still is the divine irony of gifting the land to the local council. Why? Well let’s follow the money. Local councils are constantly underfunded and when they need more money they have to do immensely unpopular things like raise rates. Raising rates is a great way to ensure that you don’t get re-elected. So if I’m the local mayor and I’ve just been given a few airports I’m suddenly starting to see a new solution.

Let’s put a hole in the cost budget. Let’s run down the airport. Let’s save some money by stopping the maintenance. Maybe we can redirect the monies paid to us for maintenance. If we can do that for long enough then the place will get a reputation for being poorly maintained and then people will stop using it. Then having degraded it enough, let’s pretend it doesn’t matter anymore and make a case for closing it.

Now I wonder what we could do with a closed airport? Why let’s subdivide it. My gosh, if we do that might end up with some more ratepayers. 1085 in the case of Evans Heads. A nice little fillip to the budget. More ratepayers and the mayor can be paid more. I like this. But wait there’s more. When we sell it we can turn the liability that was gifted to us into an asset that we can cash out. That will fund the pork barrelling that’s going to keep me in office for a whole lot longer. You can just imagine the small town mayor rubbing his hands together with glee.

But hang on, there’s more. Let’s spread the largess around a bit further. I wonder who I can get to buy a few of these lots which are going to go up in value because as a local council we can’t be seen to be making too much profit. Price them low and move them fast I say. Fortunately there is plenty of room at the trough for plenty of snouts to fit. I wonder if the council’s solicitor is doing lots of conveyancing on both sides of the transaction?

Conflict of interest has always been the downfall of all good governance. There is no question that the 1992 gifting of the ALOP airports to local councils has resulted in some damning outcomes for the 234 aerodromes involved.

Interestingly, probity is usually high in environments where corruption has been extreme. In Queensland where the Joh years are still well remembered, the level of probity that I experience at the head of a major not-for-profit is so extreme that we recently considered withdrawing from all engagement with Australia’s largest local government body because probity makes the playfield uneven.

Now you might be wondering why, in the midst of deciding whether to get up and drive – yes I know you’re surprised – but drive, the couple of hours south to attend the Great Eastern Fly-In, any of these thoughts are rushing through my head. The reality is that I make the effort to attend every year to be one of thousands who are determined to thwart what I perceive to be the Richmond Valley Council’s aspiration to turn this historic aerodrome into a nursing home and to follow the sub division of 350 residential blocks of land with further community opposed development.

When I first heard the story of the council’s attempt to close not one but two of the gifted ALOP aerodromes (Evans Heads and Casino) I was flabbergasted. In fact, I almost picked up the phone to call Bryce Courtney and suggest he writes one of his fabulous stocking fillers on the amazing machinations and strategic stupidity of the council, as they worked every angle possible to get control of two enormous property development sites.

When I started making enquiries, the thing that absolutely astonished me as I spoke to a whole range of people including councilors, airpark proponents, council staff and locals from Evans Head was the complete opacity and lack of logic to the process. To be honest it just smells. I suspect if the council was in Queensland, the whole episode might be referred to the Crime & Misconduct Commission for investigation.

The thing that really got me going was the complete stupidity of the thinking. There are two ALOP aerodromes in Australia where a smart council could turn a liability into a community making investment. One is Evans Heads, the other Moruya. At both of these aerodromes an intelligently planned airpark development would attract the truly wealthy to become part of communities where their money would keep a valuable asset operating for the whole community. Neither of those two councils have taken that initiative…and Richmond Valley is positively opposed to it.

But Temora Shire Council has. So by now you’ve picked that Evans Heads (airport 500m to a pristine beach stretching 50 km in either direction, town completely surrounded by national park, think Noosa) and Moruya (end of the main runway is within metres of another gorgeous beach) have a bit going for them in the attractiveness stakes. The sea change phenomenon was made for these two aerodromes. Temora is a different situation.

Temora is out west. It’s hot in summer. There’s lots of flies. I understand that if you like gliding it’s a great place to be – thermals abound, and if thermals abound it’s not a great place to be for those of us who call the coast home.  But what Temora has is a strategic and creative council.

You see Temora, like Evans Heads, was a training base for the RAAF in World War II. And what the Temora Shire Council did was to decide to not just embrace aviation but to become the teat to which aviation could suckle to completely stimulate a lucrative tourism opportunity. You see Temora,  a mere 422 kms west of Sydney, decided that intelligent investment would stimulate a lot more intelligent investment. In fact, I would be surprised if many of the ALOP aerodromes have spent any money on anything but bare minimum maintenance, yet Temora Shire Council has just invested $3.8 million to build a brand new runway. Stage 1 of the airpark is sold out, stage 2 is released to the public with significant interest and stage 3 and 4 are fully planned.

All of this came through visionary leadership and a willingness to invest in the infrastructure. Temora now has one of the world’s leading flying aviation museums, with fly days every month that bring in literally thousands of people to see its amazing collection of aircraft fly.

The last time I was down there for a fly day David Lowy had flown his Lear 60 in, there were no less than seven executive jets on the tarmac and I find it hard to believe that any of them would have picked Temora over Evans Heads had there been a choice.

Even history would have backed Evans Heads on this one. Both of the bases trained pilots for the Empire Air Training Scheme.  Evans Heads trained 5,500 pilots, Temora 2,400. Temora was a basic training station equipped with Tiger Moths. Evans Heads was the largest training base in the Southern Hemisphere supporting Fairy Battles, Tiger Moths and Avro Ansons with Wirraways based there when the Japanese were attacking the north. In fact, 20% of the Australian airmen killed in World War II trained at Evans Head.

Now I’m in no way bagging Temora. Indeed I doubt it’s possible to find a better example of strategic leadership by the Shire Council and I’d love the opportunity to go and meet the councillors and administrators who have managed to run the multi focus, ‘Friendly town’ campaign that has stimulated aviation, trotting and the range of other initiatives that has boosted their economy.

I’m just tragically disappointed that Richmond Valley Council lacks the vision and leadership to be able to identify its own unique assets and then build a strategy that actually would attract high value development to Evans Heads. This would provide skilled jobs, economic growth (where there are private aircrafts there is always lots of money) and amazing opportunities for the aviation industry - imagine the opportunity to locate a significant training school by the beach. It’s a no brainer.

So now you know why I packed the kids in the car and hit the highway. Two hours later we pulled up at the airfield. Not surprisingly it wasn’t raining.

Evans Heads was proving its aviation value again. During the entire day when Coolangatta was requiring instrument approaches for every landing, with the airport ramp closed twice for thunderstorms, there was but one passing shower at Evans Heads.  The flying programme went off exactly to schedule and aviation was once again celebrated, in an historic place, just as it should be.

As we drove back up the highway after a delightful and exhausting day it was clear - the Great Eastern Fly-In was once again a success. And, as it has over the past 17 years, it proved that the community values this amazing historical aerodrome. For another year, the community had won the battle over vested interest and a self-interested bureaucracy.

If you’d like to support the battle to save Evans Heads Memorial Aerodrome please contact Richard Gates, President of Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome Committee on 02 6682 5161 or ragates@netspace.net.au