Noosa aviation clubs lash out over $100k Teewah airfield hangar removal

A cloud hangs over the future of a Second World War airfield and an aviation club faces a $100k hangar removal bill if a Noosa site is turned into national park.

Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators spent $150,000 on a hangar they may have to remove, at a cost of up to $100,000, if the state government decides to turn the Noosa North Shore Landing Ground into national park.

The future of a Second World War-era Teewah airfield and two community groups that use the site is under threat.

The Noosa Council handed back trusteeship of the Noosa North Shore Landing Ground to the state government in December 2022.

The state government is seeking community feedback about the site’s future with the possibility the airfield could become national park.

The Noosa Model Flyers president Wayne Cambie said the airfield was created around the start of the Second World War as an emergency landing strip for aircraft flying up and down the coast.

Noosa Model Flyers Club president Wayne Cambie fears for the club’s future. Photo: Patrick Woods.

One hangar at the site, which was gifted to the Noosa Model Flyers, was built in the 1980s.

The Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators, a group consisting of hang gliders, paragliders and microlighting, is the second community group to regularly use the site.

The landing ground was also used as a critical evacuation point during the 2018 and 2019 Teewah bushfires and is a training space for McDermott’s Aviation.

The bushfire that burned in the Great Sandy National Park near Teewah.

McDermott Aviation chief executive John McDermott previously told the Sunshine Coast Daily the airfield formed a “small but essential” component of the preparation of aircrews and aircraft in the business’s emergency services work.

Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators president Steven Beale said it took a 10-year development application process, which began in 2008, with the council to build its hangar.

He said the club’s headquarters – worth about $150,000 – was paid for by the club, and it faced having to remove it at a cost of up to $100,000 if the state government turned the airfield into national park.

The club president added that the council had already told his 320-member club there was nowhere else for them to go in the region.

Sunshine Coast Sports Aviators spent $150,000 on a hangar they may have to remove, at a cost of up to $100,000, if the state government decides to turn the Noosa North Shore Landing Ground into national park.

The Department of Environment and Science is seeking community feedback on the future of the site but Mr Beale said the options for feedback were narrow and there was no third option – to leave the airfield alone.

He said he was “disgusted” with what he called a lack of transparency of the council in the lead-up to it handing back trusteeship of the land to the state government.

Mr Beale said he only had about 10 days to formulate a response to the council’s hand back plan.

Mr Cambie said his club had also spent about $4500 “out of our own pockets” on refurbishing the toilet block in his club’s hangar.

“There’s a lot of history there,” he said.

“It’s just a crying shame, the whole area we really look after it, there’s been no complaints about it and there’s no noise problem.”

Mr Beale said there was also an important wellbeing component to his club.

The Noosa North Shore Landing Ground.

“We’ll lose a clubhouse where people can meet and talk about their mental health,” he said.

“Our favourite sport is aviation, but we get together and talk about what’s going on in life.”

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service regional director Stephen Price said the landing ground was a “unique and environmentally sensitive site” surrounded by the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park.

Mr Price said the landing ground reserve had long been recognised for its environmental significance and said it was essential habitat for the eastern ground parrot as well as threatened frog and migratory bird species.

The future of a model plane club and another aviation club is in doubt as the Department of Environment and Science puts to the community what it should do with an airfield at Teewah that has been around since World War Two.

He said 44 per cent of the area was also koala habitat and it provided “strong connectivity” to the Great Sandy National Park.

The department did not answer questions about the historical significance of the airfield or the concerns about the community consultation.

The Noosa Council has been contacted for comment.

Community feedback on the landing ground is open until May 12.

Originally published as Noosa aviation clubs lash out over $100k Teewah airfield hangar removal