Aviation estate lands council approval

Airstrip given the go-ahead by Mackay Regional Council after years of development applications

Proposed design of the Bloomsbury airfield development by Mount Tyson Pty Ltd.

FUTURE residents of a Bloomsbury property will be able to fly home, park their plane in the garage and toddle into the lounge after council approved the development of homes and hangars around an airstrip.

The Lakeside Airpark 68-lot rural residential development on Whitsunday Dr, Bloomsbury was ticked off by Mackay Regional Council yesterday, possibly for the last time, after a dozen development applications since 1992.

Gary Poole, landowner and director of Mount Tyson Pty Ltd, will now be able to establish an integrated private airfield development including a private airstrip, and associated plane storage precinct on the 234 hectare parcel.

"An airfield is like a bus stop, people race down there, they get on the bus and they go," he said. "We're catering for a different group, they might be farmers living west of us, station owners, people who think the world of their plane, their plane is their transport.

"They want to park their plane, take their car out and go visit relatives or go on holiday."

Mr Poole said a home would cost less than one in Mackay and expects the stage development to be slow burning over a few years.

"They're rural lots, they're not going to be anywhere as dear as the Mackay properties," he said.

The average size of each lot is 2.5 hectares, and the airstrip is 1000m long with a 300m safety area at either end.

There are 25 planes parked at the airfield currently. The airstrip has existed on the property since the 1980s and general aviation pilots can land on the strip for free. This is a major drawcard for pilots, considering the staggering cost to land at Mackay Airport, whose fees are some of the highest in Queensland.

A number of conditions has been imposed on the airstrip, including that the maximum take-off weight must not exceed 2000kg, and commercial uses or activities such as joy flights, scenic flights, and skydiving are not permitted.

Mr Poole said he is more than happy to work within the conditions describing them as "fair".

The development application was debated by councillors for nearly 50 minutes yesterday, with Cr Laurence Bonaventura and Cr Martin Bella voting against its approval on grounds of safety and oversupply of rural residential area and transparency respectively.

Cr Karen May said this is the kind of development Mackay needed to entice people to the region. Those in favour agreed it was a step forward for the council's aviation strategy.

Similar developments exist in Mareeba and Whitsunday.

Originally published as Aviation estate lands council approval