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the growth of an idea


John Heaton

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Back in the early 90's - I was the CEO of a government department tasked with the development of Central West Queensland

I was based in Longreach where we had a small airport that had one flight per day from Brisbane via Charleville - Blackall and Barcaldine

 a route that was apart of the original Qantas route -as far as Winton - Cloncurry and Mt Isa - and they were based halfway in Longreach where they

had a large had a large Hangar where they serviced and built some aircraft. In 1990 the hangar was in poor condition

In the centre of Longreach was a small Museum - that used to be the booking Office of the airline - now the tourist info office - which contained 

artifacts of Qantas - including some very old movies.  A lean to at the side of the Hangar was used as the checkin for Baggage etc

The council decided that they wanted to build proper facility - and although very historical - the hanger might have to go'

However we were given the task of seeing what use could be made of it if all the garbage were got rid of. I attempted to get the aircraft company

that made the Skyfox A/c interested in moving there but failed - and we came up with the idea of searching for more artifacts to add to what we already

had in the town Info office - and setting up the Qantas story videos etc - as a museum attraction - that added to the "Stockman's Hall of Fame" museum 

just across the road. We took our idea to Qantas to see if they could add any more to what we wanted to do to keep up the history - and they did have

few bits and pieces - and offered a Complete Avro that the apprentices had built. The council built the new terminal next to the hangar in 1993 and I retired

soon after back to Noosa

 

The rest- "as they say"  is History - and if there is one thing I have wanted in simming - it was a decent airport at Longreach and yesterday - we got one !!!:):D

 

 

 

 

Edited by John Heaton
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A great looking small town airport.
I just wish scenery developers would realise,that a realistic number of people are also very necessary to stop an airport looking like a ghost town,& maintaining a sence of realistic immersion.

People are just as important as every box,traffic cone,rubbish bin,pallet etc,etc,etc,that they place in a scenery.

I counted only 2 ground crew in the whole video.

Every airport I've ever been to in the real world has been swamped with ground crew & passengers.

As wonderfull as these new airport sceneries are PLEASE no more ghost towns.

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