• A study of Gabo Island has seen Parks Victoria ban piston-engine aeroplanes from the small airstrip there. (Merimbula Air Services).
    A study of Gabo Island has seen Parks Victoria ban piston-engine aeroplanes from the small airstrip there. (Merimbula Air Services).
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A Merimbula air operator is fighting a Parks Victoria ban on piston-engine aircraft using the airstrip on Gabo Island.

Gabo Island is a lighthouse reserve only 500 metres off the Victorian coast near the NSW border. The island has accomodation at the lighthouse and a 536 m grass airstrip.

In 2011, Parks Victoria engaged consultants Hart Aviation, who concluded that only aircraft fitted with turbine engines should be allowed to use the runway, a recommendation that Parks Victoria accepted.

That has not impressed Merimbula Air Services who for years have been licensed to operate into Gabo Island.

"Each year Merimbula Air Services has been issued with a licence to conduct these operations with our aircraft which are piston engine aircraft," says owner Andy Campbell. "We and all other operators over the years have done so with not one accident or incident using piston-powered aircraft.

"The consequences of this decision by Parks Victoria are that they have successfully denied access to the island by air, because no local operator can afford to provide turbine aircraft.

"Not only does it deny visitors from accessing the island by air; it denies their own staff on the island the ability to be evacuated quickly from the island in times of medical emergencies or indeed for any other reason that may be urgent.

"Parks Victoria tells us that on such an occasion, they would dispatch a helicopter from Sydney, Canberra or Melbourne which could take up to three hours or more! This makes no sense whatsoever given that we are a 25 min flight from the island and based close to excellent medical facilities."

Already the company has had to turn down work from the Australian Customs Service due to the ban.

Campbell has said he plans to examine the Hart Aviation report closely over the next few weeks in conjunction with pilots that have extensive experience with Gabo Island.

 

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