Construction begins at Kybong airpark development

After more than a decade of planning and millions of dollars spent, a new residential development with a twist is underway just south of Gympie, with plans to expand. Find out what’s happening:

Construction has begun on a multimillion-dollar residential airspace development near Gympie, as plans to expand the project are put to Gympie Regional Council.

Cumulus Airpark is a residential airpark at Kybong, next to the Gympie aerodrome, where each lot comes complete with an aircraft hangar.

Developer Ray Gresham has spent more than a decade working on the project after the first stage was approved by the Gympie council in 2009.

Now, 13 years later, his dream is coming to fruition.

Mr Gresham said construction had begun on some of the lots, six of which were sold off the plan.

Cumulus Airpark developer Ray Gresham has been working toward completing the airpark near Gympie for more than a decade. Photo Renee Albrecht/Gympie Times

He declined to comment on how much the development had cost him, but said it was a “multimillion-dollar” investment.

It comes as a proposal to expand the airpark by more than doubling the number of lots was submitted to the council on July 12, 2022.

The reconfigure and material change of use applications propose an additional 18 lots on top of the 12 already available, Mr Gresham said.

This would bring the total number of lots to 30.

“I’ve got a lot of roadworks to do now … it’s certainly a significant project,” Mr Gresham said.

However, he could not gauge a time frame for when the project would be complete.

“Twenty-two years ago if you would have asked me that, I would have said six weeks … I’m hoping things will start getting a roll on now,” he said.

Stages one and two of the project were first approved in 2009 and 2011, respectively.

However, progress was then held up from the previous council, who deliberated on the airport’s future.

Stage three was then submitted on April 20, 2017, and spent 1287 days with council before it was approved on October 28, 2020.