Mackay international airport freight export hub plans revealed

A Mackay Isaac Whitsunday airport is poised to become a major export hub bypassing the big cities as part of a regional road map bid to secure federal funding.

Seafood, beef, and hi-tech mining equipment will soon be exported directly from a Mackay Isaac Whitsunday airport if ambitious new plans are successful.

Mackay Airport head of operations Adrian Miles said stakeholders were creating a regional aviation strategy as part of a larger freight blueprint linking road, rail, air and sea.

Mr Miles said the current model of sending products south to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to leave Australian shores was hampering the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region’s “great potential”.

Mackay Airport head of operations Adrian Miles says the region has 'great potential' to be a major export hub with an international airport coupled with cold storage facilities.

He said an aviation strategy — as part of the Greater Whitsundays Economic Development Road Map under workshop on Friday — would “join the dots” on a regional supply chain.

This included building infrastructure to store fresh and frozen produce ready for export, an idea previously put forward in 2014 under a since-abandoned $900 million expansion plan for Mackay airport.

“Cold storage is definitely something the region lacks,” Mr Miles said, adding having one to support agribusinesses “just made sense”.

The Mackay Airport could become a major export hub linking in with a specialised cold storage facility under the Greater Whitsundays Economic Development Road Map and Regional Aviation Strategy. Picture: SGB Photography

“This region produces so much, we’ll call it high-end products and so the value in those is getting them to market as soon as you can.”

Mr Miles said the move would provide a direct link for technology coming from Paget and the METS sector in the Bowen Basin, as well as expanding the capacity of regional airports to bolster tourism.

“Mackay’s in a really good place at the moment, you’ve got the Wildcat (island tours) coming online, you’ve got the (Pioneer Valley) Mountain Bike Trail coming online and that just starts a snowball effect,” Mr Miles said.

He said the aviation strategy would be finalised in the next one to three years would include provisions for one of the region’s four airports to introduce international passenger flights.

Rolling out the Greater Whitsundays Economic Development Road Map

Mr Miles joined local and state government representatives as well as business leaders, peak bodies and other stakeholders at the Resources Centre of Excellence on Friday to further workshop the GWEDRM.

Greater Whitsundays Economic Development Road Map committee members (from left): Aurecon technical director Steve Cutting, Whitsunday Regional Councillor Jan Clifford, Mackay Regional Council Deputy Mayor Karen May, and CCIQ Mackay and Whitsundays manager Maree Franettovich, at a workshop on Friday to whittle down the Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region’s key priorities. Picture: Heidi Petith

Regional Development Australia Mackay Isaac Whitsunday CEO Robert Cocco said the map would hopefully be signed by October in eagerness to secure funding leading up to the next federal election.

Mr Cocco said along with legislation and policy changes that would be required, the map detailed key projects, initiatives and infrastructure that provided jobs for the future and fostered wellbeing.

He said they were whittling down a list of between 90-100 projects to those realistically able to get off the ground.

“I would envision there would be some focus around what we loosely term biofutures and the opportunities that raises, and that’s fundamentally around developing up new products, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, plastics, you name it, out of feedstocks like sugar,” Mr Cocco said.

Regional Development Australia Mackay Isaac Whitsunday CEO Robert Cocco, says the Greater Whitsundays Economic Development Road Map was a concerted effort to secure federal funding for major projects.

He said the regional transport strategy was also critical adding the “future proof (was) in the pudding” for Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday local governments to co-operate on a freight hub’s location.

“Australia, from an economic development perspective is very much reliant on export and our region is a clear example of that,” Mr Cocco said.

“As time moves on we need to have an evolving economy … even broader than that, we need to have a community that evolves with the changes in the world.”

Originally published as Mackay international airport freight export hub plans revealed