NO MERRY XMAS AT WHITE GUM AIR PARK- but maybe a better New Year.

A multi-million dollar tourism development in the Avon Valley suffered a tragic setback just a month before Christmas

In November, Gordon Marshall, one of the proponents of a bold plan to bring two retired Boeing 737-200 airliners to White Gum Air Park, near York, died in an aircraft hanger on the property.

Mr. Marshall was White Gum Air Park’s senior flight instructor,  a Director of Sky Sports Flying School and part of the park’s tourism development team.

One of the air park proposals is to attract tourists from all over Australia and the world to view and interact with these giants of the skies, relocated in a rural setting.

A similar project in Queensland, with a Boeing 747 displayed in the town of Longreach, is now attracting over 40,000 visitors each year.

Despite this- currently local government regulators appear intent on refusing to allow visitors to see the 737’s, on private property within the local government area and are also said to be attempting to police the future flight plan development for the air park.

However close friends and business colleagues are determined to ensure Mr. Marshall’s death and any local government bureaucracy will not prevent the project from going ahead as planned.

“The last 18 months has been pure hell for all of us with our dreams seemingly turning to dust. This is even though airport planning at a regional level is entirely at the discretion of the local airport owners, aircraft noise and traffic movements are not under the control of any local government and an already proven successful  business venture should not be prevented for no good reason” a friend said.  

‘‘Knowing Gordon for 15 years I’m sure  he would want us to continue, so we are all determined to make White Gum Air Park’s restored Boeing 737’s his legacy no matter what it takes’’.

The reaction of local businesses is also a stimulus for the plan to go ahead. Gordon was so passionate about this project he was the one who canvassed the majority of businesses in the town.

“We had 100% support”, a director of this tourism development said.

Fifty four local businesses support us and we had 316 individual signatures on a petition that has been sent to the Minister for Tourism. So one wing of one of the aircraft has already arrived at the property and plans are underway for the delivery of the other wing and then the fuselage in the coming months’’.

“Gordon would really like that’ he said.

David Taylor

Lifeline 13 11 14- beyondblue 1300 22 4636.

TIME WAITS FOR NO-ONE- especially SAT!

With their workdays filled with massive decisions on a better future for York, the Shire of York Administration sadly forgot to check the calendar and who they were really dealing with regarding the Allawuna Farm environmental debacle. 

Firstly the alleged ‘thumbs-up’ for the Shire’s position by the Minister for Planning, Rita Saffioti, could just as well have been the middle digit as she has every right to say it is actually none of her business and probably did- and certainly will when push comes to shove.

Never trust a wounded elephant or a politician. Her correspondence may have contained a few of the right platitudes but the underlying message could well have  been ‘Shire of York emptor’- York beware, meaning some due care is possible, but forget any responsibility.

And of course the government department that Ms. Saffioti takes care of, called the Department of Planning, contains the West Australian Planning Commission that appears to have been considered another potential friend by Chief Executive Officer, Paul Martin, and his executive crew.

Certainly this department claims to consider all interests including environmental and community wants. Unfortunately it also considers both economic and political needs so if Allawuna Farm is the cheapest alternative, the proponents have lobbied cleverly and the dump is not going to be in a Labour held seat- then guess what!

So read this shire sob story and weep:- and remember ‘implied’ means maybe yes-or maybe no and ‘not complied with’ means the shire did not do what it was supposed to do!

"Therefore, whilst the 42-day timeframe to provide the executed documents was not complied with, it was understood at the time that there was an awareness and implied level of consent to the Shire’s position within the correspondence between the Shire on the one hand, and the office of the Minister and the Western Australian Planning Commission on the other hand."

 A little assumption is a very dangerous thing.

And now the shire has to deal with a gaggle of quasi-intellectuals including lawyers, accountants, psychologists, architects and a midwife called the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT).

Would they care that WA has the worst earthquake tremors in the nation with  5.7 and 4.7 magnitude quakes in the South West this year. ( Both Meckering and York are in this area of instability. )

And given that these earthquakes were at a shallow depth they would probably tear the walls of a landfill site apart. Would this register on SAT’s Richter Scale?- probably not!

The fact that the most recent road death statistics show that 8 people have died and 32 seriously injured on Great Southern Highway between the Lakes and St. Ronan’s well between 2001 and 2016 probably does not register either.

Nor would the fact that heavy haulage movements will increase a massive 3.5 times, per day-existentially increasing the possibility of road trauma by a similar amount.

So good luck with SAT because there is probably not one environmentalist among them, not one of them lives in the Wheatbelt and maybe none of them has ever spent time in the town of York.

Cr Ferro sporting

No landfill attire 

Therefore congratulations go to President David Wallace and his team, some elected because of their  populist  stance against the rubbish tip at Allawuna and CEO Paul Martin whose trust in others is quite astounding.


David Taylor.