Bendigo products beginning an aerial journey to Asia. Commercial passenger flights touching down. Miners flying out. Buddhist pilgrims flying in.
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These are only some of the aspirations businesspeople and councillors have for the Bendigo Airport once it is redeveloped.
A common refrain when talking about the upgrade has been that it will bring significant “opportunities” to the region.
But beyond better access for emergency services, what will an improved airport, with its bigger runway and new infrastructure, mean?
Bendigo councillor and Bendigo Airport Advisory Committee member James Williams says the promise of faster travel times will spawn a range of passenger, freight and tourism services.
“It will grow the city and create jobs,” he said. “It’s important we link to the rest of the country and this leverages a raft of things.
“What we are trying to do is get people to look at the broader picture. This is not just about passenger travel.”
Stock agents, Cr Williams says, want to export from the region by plane, as do industries with links to Asia.
By attracting commercial carriers, he adds, the airport could run important connections to and from regional and capital cities, allowing passengers to begin or end international journeys here.
But the Bendigo Airport won’t act as an international terminal, Cr Williams says.
Gary Lawson-Smith, Swinburne University of Technology aviation lecturer, says Bendigo can look to several other regional airports for inspiration.
“The recent Brisbane West – Wellcamp airport (privately funded) initiative at Toowoomba may provide Bendigo with an excellent example of what can be achieved,” he wrote in an email.
Those behind the Bendigo project already view Wellcamp, owned by businessman John Wagner, as a case study, due to Toowoomba having a similar population and proximity to a capital city as Bendigo.
Exports are flown from Wellcamp, which opened in 2014, to Asia. The airport, Cr Williams says, could eventually connect with Bendigo. Mr Wagner has already visited the city to meet with council and airport officials.
Caroline Wilkie, Australian Airports Association chief executive officer, says small planes used by carriers such as REX, Virgin and QantasLink would fit on the new 1.6 kilometre “Class 3C” runway.
A Virgin ATR can seat about 70 passengers.
A Qantas spokesman says the airline has no plans to fly to Bendigo. But Ms Wilkie believes there would be demand for such transport.
“As with any project, you need to have the vision to build it before you can lock in services,” she said.
Looking to the sky
Businesses are already mapping out how they might use a redeveloped Bendigo Airport to their advantage.
The Bendigo Business Council says it welcomes opportunities the project might have for freight and passenger transport.
“It’s important for the evolution of Bendigo that it have a robust, commercial freight service operating from the airport and that the city is an important gateway for northern Victoria and southern New South Wales,” said Leah Sertori, BBC chief executive officer.
Brad Ead, a partner at accounting firm AFS & Associates in Bendigo, says the expansion will spur economic activity in central Victoria.
“There is no doubt it will open up investment opportunities … for many of our regional Victorian business clients,” he said, adding this included those trading with partners further afield and those focused on tourism.
With clients right across the country, AFS’s employees frequently travelled for business reasons, Mr Ead says.
“A local, regular provider of convenient, cost-effective flight services to multiple common destinations means less downtime in travel for us, and promotes more face time with clients.”
Neil Sammons is site manager at MSD Animal Health in Bendigo, which manufactures vaccines that are distributed nationally and exported to New Zealand, Japan and South Africa.
The company hopes to expand into Southeast Asian markets. Improved services at the airport would likely not change shipment methods for MSD, but would still bring benefits.
“The interest in the airport for us is more around movement of people,” he said. “We have people going back and forward from Sydney to Bendigo as well as international visitors.
“It’s an extra drain going to Melbourne when you could fly directly to Sydney.”
A business park and commercial precinct are planned for stage three of the redevelopment, with $4 million yet to be secured.
Cr Williams hopes the business sector takes advantage of opportunities at the airport.
“Council does not do big business – businesses and people do big business.”
Buddhist pilgrims could fly in for Stupa
Passenger flights connecting Sydney and Bendigo would attract a growing number of Buddhist pilgrims from Asia and the US in the coming years, says Ian Green, Great Stupa of Universal Compassion chairman.
Already, Mr Green says, a small number of pilgrims come to Bendigo from the US to visit the Great Stupa in Myers Flat.
Often they fly into Sydney, board a connecting flight to Melbourne, then travel by road or train to Bendigo.
“I’ve been asked many times, ‘Can I get a direct flight to Bendigo? Can I get 100 people there?’,” he said.
“I think a lot of people fly to Sydney. It’s a bit of a mission to get here. Direct flights from Sydney, though, that would be a different kettle of fish.”
When the Great Stupa is completed and its Jade Buddha for Universal Peace – a four-tonne statue consecrated by the Dalai Lama – is back from a world tour, the site could attract significantly more visitors annually than the 25,000 people it gets now, Mr Green says.
