Saturday, June 12, 2010

Investigation into Sydney's International Airports - chronology from 1946

I am assuming that in 1946 Sydney's "International Airport" was actually Rose Bay Flying Boat Base. If that assumption is right then this link below takes us back to the decision to anoint the swampy airfield site at Mascot as "the" International Airport of the future. If you follow the chronology a 2nd "major" airport is considered in 1964 when the Towra Point Folly first comes up. Somersby also gets a guernsey in the 1970s, along with Galston and Duffy's Forest. All 3 drew a lot of protest from locals, for good reason. They were also the most challenging sites to build on, so the fight perhaps wasn't that hard to win in retrospect.

As I have pointed out several times it's wrong to say Sydney needs a "second" airport. Sydney already has Mascot, Bankstown, Richmond and Camden plus it had Schofields and Hoxton Park. Not forgetting The Oaks and a bunch of WWII airstrips. Whether it "needs" a 2nd major airport is a harder question to answer.      

Second Sydney Airport-A Chronology (September 2003)
A study is undertaken to determine the best site for the development of an international airport in Sydney. Sites studied include Towra Point, Bankstown and Mascot. Between 1946 and 1968, Federal, State and local governments discuss the Towra Point site, which is eventually ruled out because of environmental difficulties.
Checkout my list of Sydney and surrounding airstrips and airports.

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