The future of Yarrawonga Aerodrome is under the spotlight now that the draft master plan has been endorsed by Moira Shire Council, which owns and manages the facility.

Council is calling for feedback as it looks to its ongoing viability, assessing the strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities and threats.

Chief executive, Matt Morgan said the key question was planning for the next 10 to 15 years to ensure the aerodrome remained fit for purpose, with incremental improvements.

“But more importantly, how do we fund those improvements without impacting ratepayers?” he said.

“It’s about whether there is a way to implement some mechanisms to start generating some cost recovery.

The master plan outlines $7 million in proposed upgrades over the next 10 years, the potential for complementary industrial use and subdivision of land adjacent to the existing hangars.

“We've looked at trends, we've looked at usage analysis, we've looked at the operating models, and then we've looked at what some of the upgrade capacity could be,” Mr Morgan said.

Does the council keep the aerodrome and run it?

Does council sell it and allow someone who specialises in running aerodromes to run it?

Or does council lease the aerodrome?

With an annual operating budget of $250,000, these are the questions now being asked, and whether it’s reasonable moving forward for 16,000 ratepayers to pay for something that benefits 20 people?

Yarrawonga Aerodrome began as an airfield with a dirt runway in 1972.

Today it is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, 1200m, bitumen, main runway with modern LED lights.

A second runway has a natural surface.

Of its 38 hangars, 25 are privately owned and a handful of businesses includes aircraft maintenance, fuel, flying schools, and the Bureau of Meteorology radar.

Up to 15,000 aircraft movements a year include private aircraft, emergency services, air ambulance fixed wing and helicopters, police airwing, Fire Bird and agricultural spraying.

“We’re asking for feedback from the users on whether they think it's best if we retain it and run it, or do we move it into someone else's hands?” Mr Morgan said.

In 2023, Council received two unsolicited proposals to purchase land at the aerodrome.

Selling the land could affect flexibility for future development but could also deliver rate revenue and an economic boost by providing hangar lots and commercial development.

Mr Morgan said he wouldn’t predicate what the consultation period would bring.

“But if I'm a gambling man, I'd suggest that people are going to say council should keep it and manage it moving forward,” he said.

“The next question is, should we establish an advisory committee, or is there another structure, like establishing a user group?”

As Moira Shire Council welcomes ideas around Yarrawonga Aerodrome’s future, one consortium of five local businesspeople is ready to talk.

One of those is developer Mark Russell whose main concern is the lack of available industrial land.

“The town has no industrial land at all,” Mr Russell said.

“But there's a lot of people who want to build a factory on an industrial block of land, and half of them have ended up building on 2000 sqm blocks at the back of Glanmire Estate, because there's nowhere else to go.”

Mr Russell said he approached the council purely from the industrial land point of view but was then approached by “a couple of other people out there” who have the ability to set up and run a pilot training school.

“There could be 100 pilots here, eventually being trained, eating and drinking in town,” he said.

“We’ve made an unsolicited offer to council, which could mean either buying or leasing the aerodrome; it’s up to council.

“The offer just simply says we're interested in the site.”

The consortium has plans to bring upmarket, small group tourism, particularly golfers, into Yarrawonga from Canberra and Sydney.

“We know that there’s people in New South Wales who will fly here and play golf and go and visit the wineries,” Mr Russell said.

“And if we have a flying school here, that potentially dovetails in.”

The Master Plan is available now on Moira Matters online and open for community feedback until Sunday, October 12.

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Friday, 28th October 2022

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