The NOTAM has been updated and we assume, due to the inept performance of them NOT getting the future hangarage done in time for the displaced tenants!

Here’s what is displayed on the NOTAM today, 17th August 2008:

    AERODROME DECOMMISSIONED
    WITH EFFECT FROM 0812151300
    FROM 08 150421 TO PERM

Please read the media release, or visit General Aviation page from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Goverment website to see other related information regarding the report.

This week, a group of people who want to save an airport.

The imminent sale of the Sydney’s smallest one has some of its users in a rage.

Mind you, they’re not getting any support from the community, which is keen to see the airport developed as a residential site.

Janice Petersen reports.

JANICE PETERSEN: For flying enthusiasts, it feels like the sky is falling at Hoxton Park.

And for the businesses and users of Sydney’s smallest airport, things are only going to get worse.

Back in March 2001, the Federal Government announced its decision to sell off Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park airports.

They want to see the three facilities, known as the Sydney basin airports, sold as a package.

The Government says this is the last in a series of airport sales which have brought with them a windfall of around $8.3 billion.

Both Bankstown and Camden airports will be sold with their existing lease term, and still have about 45 years left.

Hoxton Park, however, is on the other end of the spectrum.

It’s the sweetener in the package deal.

Its lease has been shortened and has only five years left.

The land then converts to freehold title.

If residential zoning is granted, it could be worth around $1 billion.

So western Sydney’s urban sprawl looks set to continue.

But is it a good idea?

Martin Waterhouse, regular user of the airport and member of the Hoxton Park Action Group, thinks not.

He thinks local residents should view the airport as an asset.

MARTIN WATERHOUSE, HOXTON PARK ACTION GROUP: This nice green island of an airport, in my opinion, adds value to their homes.

It’ll just become a terracotta rash all around here and it won’t be anywhere near as beautiful.

JANICE PETERSEN: Liverpool Council doesn’t agree.

Their media release from April, when the Government announced its sell-off strategy, was titled ‘Liverpool City Council Welcomes Airport’s Closure’.

They’ve labelled Hoxton as ‘outmoded’ and Mayor George Pacuillo says it has: “A history of safety concerns, is inappropriately located and has clearly outlived its usefulness.”

Supporters, however, say the airport boasts many attractive features.

MARTIN WATERHOUSE: This place is the best general aviation-dedicated airport in Australia.

It’s got a fabulous runway — it’s wide, it’s smooth and it’s long, and it acts as an emergency approach field to Bankstown.

It’s got nice green approaches on three sides.

Heck, this would be about as safe as you could get an airport.

We only have three training runways in the whole of Sydney and they want to close one of them.

It’s a disaster.

It’s not good government.

It’s industrial sabotage.

It’s like closing down Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It will have the same effect on general aviation as closing the Harbour Bridge will have on vehicular traffic in Sydney.

It’s just mad.

JANICE PETERSEN: Melbourne, by comparison, has more airports but less air traffic.

MARTIN WATERHOUSE: In the same radius as Hoxton Park is to Sydney they’ve got nine.

We’ve got three and they want to close one of them.

And yet we do more flying up here.

Where do they expect us to go?

And they want to sell it to one bidder so he gets a monopoly over general aviation facilities in the Sydney basin, and he’ll just screw the prices through the roof.

JANICE PETERSEN: Besides safety and training, the dissenters have other concerns.

They say the land around the airport is inappropriate for development because it’s subject to flooding, being on the flood plain of Hinchinbrook Creek.

Then there’s the history of the site.

They’re even planning to close it when it’s listed as an historical airport site by the Heritage Commission.

I don’t know how they’re going to maintain this place as an historical airport site if they bulldoze it and build houses on.

JANICE PETERSEN: Chief flying instructor at Pheonix Aero Club, Senja Robey, has worked at the Hoxton Park airport since the ’50s.

She says she’s trained many of today’s commercial pilots.

The closure of Hoxton, she says, limits the opportunities of the next generation wanting to take to the skies.

SENJA ROBEY: If we lose this facility, it’s going to affect safety operations in the Sydney area and limit the potential for young people coming on.

Of course we’ve got to realise young students coming on, they’re tomorrow’s Qantas captains.

Everybody’s got to start at the bottom.

JANICE PETERSON: Senja says she’ll continue to fight the closure.

SENJA ROBEY: Genuine pilots don’t ever hang up their boots.

They hang in there and fly for as long as they can.

It’s a disease.

My personal problem with all of this is not for me personally.

I have a passionate belief in the future of aviation in this country and particularly for young people coming on in the Sydney area.

Now, if we can’t provide facilities for them, we’re discriminating against them.

JANICE PETERSON: And she’s confident about who’ll have the last laugh on the probable Hoxton Park airport closure.

You think the 100,000 extra movements a year is going to put too much stress on Camden and Bankstown?

SENJA ROBEY: I would think so.

Let them wait and see.

MEDIA RELEASE The Hon Wilson Tuckey MP Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government
09 April 2003 WT32/2003

SALE OF BANKSTOWN, CAMDEN AND HOXTON PARK AIRPORTS

According to the NOTAM, Hoxton Park airport runway will be closed on 27th October 2008 at 1259Z (11pm local). The NOTAM excerpt reads as below (as displayed on the Air Services Australia pilot briefing on 4th August 2008):

    WITH EFFECT FM 0810271259 AERODROME DCSMD
    FROM 02 140608 TO PERM