While I am as enthusiastic as anyone else in regard to fostering the growth of Bathurst, there are good reasons, at times, to pause and consider exactly what problems some ventures will bring with them and consider how the ventures will fit in with the image Bathurst has and also fit in with the well-being of the residents who live here and those who will in the future.

In my opinion, the Qantas project has the potential to radically change the environment, the image and the local economy in a negative fashion.

Consider the following: our airport is small, houses in Raglan are 800 metres from the runway and houses in Kelso are 1.5 kilometres away.

Future housing is to be built at a similar distance between Limekilns Road and the Great Western Highway.

Residents of Kelso and Raglan have been complaining for years of the noise that is made by training aircraft operating over residential areas. The noise is registered at 60 to 70 decibels. 

Legislation has been in place since at least the year 2000 to prevent this occurring.

Refer to Bathurst Regional Council LEP 14, Clause 7.4, which then refers to Australian Standard 2021-2000, which advises that land exposed to aircraft noise greater than 20db cannot be zoned for residential housing, schools, hospitals and public buildings.

The pilot training course would be over 18 months and, in that time, a trainee would have to gain 1500 hours of flight training to qualify.

Such training is done by flying circuits around an airport at heights varying from 150 metres to 300 metres. Such training has a noise value of 60 to 70 db.

The statistics for the training of 500 pilots a year are staggering. Training can be from 7am to 10pm, a total of 15 hours, each training flight, for a maximum of 45 minutes.

To cope with training 500 pilots a year achieving 1500 hours in 18 months would mean that 2000 such 45-minute sessions would be required each day – that is 133 per hour from 7am to 10pm seven days a week.

That would be many planes doing circuits at low altitude.

Obviously there would have to be several circuits at different heights to accommodate that number of planes. The noise would be monumental.

The Bathurst Regional Airport Master Plan forecast aircraft movements for 2018 to be 20,000. The Qantas Academy could add 1,460,000 aircraft movements per annum, making a total of 1,480,000, which is more than 70 times as much traffic as the airport handles now.

The airport has no control tower. Planes approaching and leaving rely on radio contact and visual sighting to prevent accidents.

With the number of planes doing training circuits, it would be appear to be a nightmare for other planes using the airport.

There are a number of outcomes to such a venture operating here.

Under the current legislation, no further land exposed to noise above 20 decibels near the airport can be rezoned for housing development.

Current housing and schools may have a case for retrofitting sound-proofing at the council’s expense.

The noise will affect the values of properties affected, likely to be most of Kelso and Raglan.

Real estate sales will be affected in the noise-affected areas. The building industry will be affected with similar issues, in turn affecting subcontractors, suppliers and the economy generally.

Kelso has been an attraction for people from Sydney and other areas seeking a semi-rural place to live.

Aircraft noise could stop this and give Bathurst a bad name.