Mayor's Message 27 April 2021

Published on 27 April 2021

At tonight’s Council meeting, Council will debate a report on the future of Maryborough Airport.

During the election campaign last year it was clear that our community wanted the new elected Council to consider the future of Maryborough Airport as a priority.

Council accepted as urgent business a motion to invite key stakeholders to a meeting with Council before Christmas which was very productive.

Since then there has been intensive work to deal with a range of legacy issues which needed resolution including the conditions for tenancies at the Airport and developing new future tenancy arrangements.

Undoubtedly we have a wonderful asset in our Airport positioned so centrally and in between the major growth cities of Ballarat and Bendigo. The upside in growth opportunity is immense and its ability to support economic development and prosperity.

In order to do this we need to develop a new business case for the Airport and refresh the Master Plan undertaken a decade ago. An important consideration is if Council should make a case for the regaining the former registration of the Airport by CASA. Adding a refuelling facility is another issue.

We need community input into these and many other issues on how the Airport will contribute to the community’s future,

A potential Airport tenant with deeply established links to aviation referred to “your beautiful airport.”

Perhaps the issue for us has been we have not realised how beautiful and special our Airport is and how valuable it’s future contribution can be.

The report proposes the establishment of a Maryborough Aerodrome Taskforce and if endorsed at tonight's Council Meeting an expression of interest process for membership will be carried out.