Victoria

Location: RAAF Point Cook Airbase

Threat: Disposal and inappropriate development

Significance of Place

Established in 1913, just ten years after the first aircraft flight in history, Point Cook is a nationally and internationally significant aviation site. It is believed to be the oldest continuously operating and intact military airfield in the world today, and one of the last intact WW1 and seaplane bases in the world.

It is Australia’s most important aviation site, the birth place of the RAAF and military aviation, the cradle of civil aviation until the 1930s, and the departure point of many historic flights, including the first North-South and East-West crossings and first aerial circumnavigation of the continent. Point Cook retains intact 1914 and WW1 buildings, a 1920s seaplane jetty and hangars, together with its WW11 and post war landscapes.

Description of Threat

Consequent to its progressive vacation by the RAAF, the Federal Government is considering a Department of Defence proposal to sell all or parts of the site, subject only to State heritage controls to protect buildings and planning controls. The Trust has written to the Prime Minister and other relevant Ministers, and met Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Fran Bailey to put its case that the airport be leased rather than sold, similar to other major civil airfields in Australia.

Point Cook Operations Limited (PCOL), a not for profit group, has submitted a business plan to lease the site to ensure retention of the operating airfield, preservation of the RAAF Museum, and development as a heritage tourism site.

As the Federal government have yet to develop a National Aviation Museum in Victoria as recommended in a 1975 Senate Inquiry (since which time Sydney’s National Maritime Museum has been created), the offer by a commercially based community group to preserve the site and keep it in government hands would be our preferred option.

Action Required

The Trust strongly believes that the soon-to-be vacated site should be retained in Commonwealth ownership, and leased, rather than sold. This is the only way of ensuring Point Cook’s long-term future, and preserving its unique aviation heritage. A lease in accordance with a specified management plan constitutes the only real guarantee that Point Cook will continue as an airport, and be developed in the most appropriate manner.