• Barwon Heads Airport is about to get a sealed runway. (Themit)
    Barwon Heads Airport is about to get a sealed runway. (Themit)
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The Victorian Government has committed further funds to boost general aviation in the Geelong region.

Barwon Heads Airport has been granted $651,000 to seal the runway and taxiway, and improve lighting.

Minister for the Aviation Industry Gordon Rich-Phillips announced the grant from the Regional Aviation Fund (RAF) today.

“Barwon Heads Airport is a key economic asset to the region, as the Bellarine Peninsula’s only public airfield and the City of Greater Geelong’s only general aviation airfield,” Rich-Phillips said.

“At present, the airport is closed for an average 50 days each year and up to two weeks at a time, due to wet weather and water-logging of the current gravel runway. Many businesses do not plan flights from Barwon Heads during winter for this reason and closure of the runway costs the airport’s commercial operators a significant amount of lost income each year.

“The upgraded runway will allow the airport to operate year-round and result in shorter take-off distances, reducing aircraft noise over neighbouring properties and nearby Lake Connewarre."

Barwon Heads is owned by a local pilot conglomerate and is a base for flight training, skydiving, ballooning and helicopter operations. It had also been the home of Geelong Aero Club since the closure of Grovedale Airport.

Another local airport, Lethbridge Airpark, recently opened a new sealed runway partially funded from the Regional Aviation Fund.

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