DEAR News Of The Area,

IN November 2024, I attended a Taree Airport Strategy Study workshop at MidCoast Council’s Taree chambers as representative for Myall Coast Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.

Taree is a certified airport with navigation instrument certification and runs air freight, aero medical, firefighting, air rescue, private aircraft and a flying club, but does not operate regular scheduled passenger services.

The airport is owned and operated by MidCoast Council.

Driving to Sydney from Taree now takes about 3.5 hours and flying from Taree to Sydney wouldn’t save much time.

The Hexham Bridge Bypass project is now proceeding apace and, when completed, will save 30 minutes’ driving time on the Taree to Sydney trip, which will reduce driving time to three hours.

The Airport’s runway is in excellent condition and was recently resurfaced by Council.

Many training operators come to train new pilots in landing at Taree Airport because take offs and landings on the main runway (“circuits and bumps”) are cheaper to conduct compared to other regional airports at Sydney, Newcastle and Coffs Harbour.

Taree Airport is an ideal location for training pilots as it has low volume usage and is close to Sydney and Newcastle.

There is strong potential for Taree Airport to become a regional firefighting hub.

The airport was extremely busy during the 2019 bushfires and water tanker aircraft had to fly back to Richmond Airport in western Sydney during the fires to be refilled with water.

Harrington at the mouth of the Manning River was almost burnt out because water tanker aircraft had to go down to Sydney to refill and just got back in time to save the town.

To fight fires more effectively, the airport would need a bulk water supply installed to refill water tankers but treated effluent from the nearby Taree sewage treatment plant could be provided to fight fires with.

The main runway would need to be extended by a kilometre to allow large jet water bombing aircraft to land and be refilled there but the provision of a bulk water supply immediately could allow “Elvis” helicopters to land at Taree Airport and refill with water during firefighting emergencies.

Having an upgraded firefighting facility at Taree Airport would improve firefighting services on the Mid North Coast as well as for inland areas.

The current devastating bushfires in California show what sort of fire events are possible here as well and extreme weather events, with dry air combined with strong gale force winds, are the perfect situation for large fires to develop.

The Great Lakes area and national park land through to Port Stephens were not burnt out in 2019 and, with five years’ extra growth since then, are “ready to go” in the event of major regional bushfires.

Having a substantial water supply facility installed at Taree Airport would be an effective counter to future bushfire threats when droughts recur in our region.

Regards,
Chris TAYLOR,
Tea Gardens.