Under pressure

Growing pains at RAAF Williamtown and Newcastle Airport

RAAF Williamtown has long been the Air Force’s key fighter base, but with massive commercial growth at the adjacent Newcastle Airport commercial terminal in recent years it seemed inevitable at some point that tension would arise in balancing the needs of a critical defence base with those of a growing commercial airport.

These issues came to the surface recently when Tourism New South Wales released a draft strategy document, known widely as the O’Neill report, which, among other things, recommended that Williamtown be expanded to become a second international gateway to New South Wales.