Noosa, Sunshine Coast flying clubs fight plan to shut Teewah airstrip

Community groups are fighting to save an almost 80-year-old airstrip north of Noosa, saying they have nowhere to go and will be bankrupted if it is closed down.

Noosa Model Flyers president Wayne Cambie is among those fighting to keep the Teewah airstrip open amid plans by the state government to return it back to national park.

Community groups are fighting to save an almost 80-year-old airstrip at Teewah, between Noosa and Rainbow Beach, saying they will be bankrupted if it is shut down.

Members of the Noosa Model Flyers and the Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators are among those fighting to keep the airstrip open amid plans by the state government to return it to national park.

In 2024, the groups were given two years to relocate from the strip, which they said dated back to at least the Second World War.

The clubs had each been located at the strip for decades.

Model Flyers president Wayne Cambie said the groups had poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into upgrading and maintaining the strip and there was “no reason whatsoever” it should be closed except for “vain” claims of its sensitivity.

Noosa Model Flyers president Wayne Cambie is among those fighting to keep the Teewah airstrip open amid plans by the state government to return it to national park.

“It’s there, it’s not sensitive anymore,” Mr Cambie said.

“It’s not going to change at all.”

He said the airstrip was still “actively” used for training by emergency responders, and served as an emergency firebreak when bushfires ripped through the area in 2019.

“That runway, I’ve never seen anything like it, it stopped the fire,” Mr Cambie said.

“It took the guts out of the fire.”

Without it Teewah Village would have been razed,he said.

“That was a foregone conclusion.

Questions linger in wake of alleged stab victim’s post-mortem

Aboriginal group breaks its silence on native title war over access to Qld beach

Model Flyers president Wayne Cambie said the alternative locations suggested for the clubs included Gympie, Maryborough and Caboolture, the latter two more than 100km away. Photo: Warren Lynam / Sunshine Coast Daily

Aviators’ member Ron Rinkus said the group fundraised for about a decade to cover the $150,000 cost of building the hangar.

They had been told the club needed to remove the hangar at its own cost as part of its relocation.

Mr Rinkus said the cost of doing so would bankrupt the club.

“The sport’s finished (at Noosa),” he said.

“We have no options.

“You have no idea how hard it is (for a small club) to raise that money.”

Mr Cambie said the alternative locations suggested for the clubs included Gympie, Maryborough and Caboolture, the latter two more than 100km away.

“There’s nowhere in Noosa,” he said.

Mr Rinkus said its current location was “the ideal place for it”.

The airstrip was still “actively” used for training by emergency responders, and it even served as an emergency firebreak when bushfires ripped through the area in 2019. Photos: Contributed.

A DES spokesman said the airstrip was gazetted as an addition to the Great Sandy National Park by the government in September 2024.

“The former landing ground is a high value conservation area surrounded by the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park and is home to the threatened Cooloola acid frogs and Eastern ground parrot,” the spokesman said.

“The land is also the largest remnant of coastal vegetation on southern Queensland’s mainland, a refuge for plants and animals whose habitats have dwindled with coastal development.”

He said community consultation had been done about the airstrip’s closure, including with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Department “who confirmed as an isolated inholding the former landing ground area is not recognised as a key emergency management site for the purposes of fire management”.

A DES spokesman said the airstrip was gazetted as an addition to the Great Sandy National Park by the government in September 2024.

The pair said ther airstrip’s history dated back to at least the Second World War.

Mr Rinkus said the park covered about 428sq km.

The airstrip took up about 3 per cent of it, he said.

They rejected the suggestion the airstrip was home to habitat for wildlife, including koalas.

“I have never seen a koala eat a paperbark tree, and that’s all there is (at the airstrip),” Mr Cambie said.

“I’ve never seen a koala (in 25 years), and that’s day and night.”

Mr Rinkus said the airstrip actually served as a sanctuary for wildlife fleeing the fires in 2019.

A petition to keep the airstrip open, lodged on the state government’s website and sponsored by Tinbeerwah resident Peter Upton, attracted more than 2100 signatures in the first five days after it was launched.

The petition will remain open until August 24, 2025.

Mr Rinkus said there was “no reason” the airstrip could not stay open and give all involved parties a “win-win”.

“It’s not an ‘either, or’ decision to be made,” he said.