RFS, Dubbo Council spend millions upgrading airport facilities

An asbestos-ridden storage facility is set to be transformed into a state-of-the art hub for Rural Fire Service heroes in Dubbo by the end of this year.

Dubbo Mayor Ben Shields, airport manager Jacki Parish and RFS preparedness area operations manager Paul Whiteley on the new apron at Dubbo City Regional Airport. Picture: Ryan Young

Work is almost complete on a major transformation of an old storage facility at Dubbo airport that’s soon set to become a hub for Rural Fire Service workers during bushfire seasons and beyond.

The RFS and Dubbo Regional Council have joined forces to give the old Airservices Australia building a makeover and construct a new parking bay for firefighting aircraft to use.

Tradies work to complete a major refurb of the Airservices building which is understood to have been used by air traffic controllers in the past. Picture: Ryan Young

Dubbo City Regional Airport manager Jacki Parish said the building, constructed in the 1960s, was now owned by the council and used by maintenance workers to store equipment.

“We knew that the building itself was a bit of an eyesore … there was asbestos in it and it was either at a point where the building would have needed to be demolished or Airservices would have needed to invest significant funds into it to make it safe,” she said.

Ms Parish said the idea to repurpose the building and construct a new parking bay came after a trial was conducted in the 2018/19 bushfire season.

As part of the trial, an RFS firefighting aircraft was stationed in Dubbo and the need to create an additional parking space, and have a safe building for RFS crews to be based in, was identified.

An RJ85 tanker from Canada parked on the new apron that's calling Dubbo home during the current bushfire season, on the new parking bay — also known as an apron. Picture: Ryan Young

RFS aerial operations preparedness area manager Paul Whiteley said with fire seasons worsening, it made sense to have a permanent place for firefighting aircraft and crews in western NSW.

“Western NSW is an area that’s really carrying a fuel load and it’s sensible and realistic to put some assets out here for quick deployment,” he said.

“We’re very fortunate that council have come on board and offered us that facility that we could utilise.

“Our pilots and our air base crews will have space and facilities so they can be on call. We’ve got crews rostered on now until the end of the fire season and we need to look after them.”

The RFS invested $2 million to create the parking bay and upgrade the Airservices building, while the council injected $1 million into the project.

The Airservices building is located to the right of the main Dubbo City Regional Airport terminal. Picture: Ryan Young

Mayor Ben Shields said the collaboration between council and the RFS would help keep western NSW communities safe during bushfire seasons and even give council’s airport staff a potentially new space to work from in the future.

“Dubbo City Regional Airport is so central to everything, it is the ideal location for this,” he said.

Clr Shields said the development helped cement Dubbo airport’s reputation as an emergency services hub, with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, RFS, State Emergency Service and Volunteer Rescue Association all set up in new facilities within the airport precinct.

“We’ve got an RFS training academy, we’ve got a police academy that’s coming which is going to be extraordinary.

“We want more of it, we want to work closer with our emergency services partners.

“Regional aviation is only going to get bigger in the coming decades and the good thing is that Dubbo is set up with an airport that is ready for the future.”

Construction work on the old Airservices building is expected to be completed in December.