Recollection of events provided by Pat Keating, December 2001
We were alerted to the proposal to build Sydney's second international airport on Kooragang Island in October 1998 when the media announced it as the solution to the anti-aircraft noise campaigns that were tearing Sydney apart.
Early next morning, the local ABC station, 2NC, rang me to ask what the people of Stockton thought of the idea. I rashly declared that we would never agree to the ruination of our peaceful suburb and would fight it to the end. Asked what my organisation was called, I quickly blurted out the name 'Citizens Against Kooragang Airport' (CAKA), which is mainly memorable for its unfortunate acronym. Then I rang off, aware I had just pledged this organisation of one to a fight against the wealthy and well-resourced company, Abi-Group and Supporters of Kooragang Island Airport (SKIA), made up of wealthy businessmen, developers and ex-politicians.
However, I need not have worried. Within a few minutes, Norm and Esme Turnbull and Carmel Bennett had rung, and we had an executive. By evening we had dozens of supporters. We met within a few days and decided to start with an examination of the proponents of the airport and why they were backing this idea.
We gathered all the glossy brochures and advertising data SKIA was churning out from its shop-front in King Street. This office, complete with a PR spokesperson and a secretary, was surrounded by big signs hailing the new deal for Newcastle and attracted much attention, as did the constant mail-out of propaganda. We had to counter their claims, but had only a few home computers and no office equipment. It seemed an unequal battle but we worked at turning out our plain information sheets and some posters to adorn shop windows and house fronts. The cost of photocopying was daunting, but our local State and Federal members, Bryce Gaudry and Allan Morris, came to our rescue. Then our local chemist, Nick Ferros, who had Stockton's only private photocopier, invited us to use it for free. Help was rolling in and we had passed the first hurdle - how to get information out while working on a very small budget.
We bought documents from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and learned the names of all Abi-group directors and major shareholders. It was interesting to note that there were none from Newcastle, they were mainly Sydney, interstate and overseas residents and companies. We decided that this was a useful propaganda tool to stir up Newcastle citizens. We then investigated SKIA and found a preponderance of conservative local politicians and big businesspeople who had building, transport and development interests. Again none of them resided anywhere near the city and all had the potential to be enriched by this venture. We had our first weapons of attack to ward off these outside invaders.
We solved the problems of distribution by legwork. We letter-boxed all the close suburbs, handed out sheets at fairs, markets and shopping centres. We sent single copies to volunteers in more distant areas and introduced them to their long-suffering but willing local State and Federal members. We made 'No-Aircraft Noise' posters to go in shops and front windows of houses. We painted slogans and pictures of planes on sheeting and hung them from fences on roadsides, and decorated the city and its thoroughfares with our messages. One of our Ward one councillors borrowed a badge-making machine from her school and taught us how to use it and soon we were selling rather wobbly badges at a great rate. We wrote letters to the Editors of all papers and composed media releases refuting the statements of our opponents.
We examined the SKIA brochures in detail and realised that this airport was to operate 24 hours a day with expected plane movements every three minutes. A curfew was to be placed on Sydney Airport and Kooragang would take all the night traffic as well as a big proportion of the day flights. All of the Hunter Valley, west to East Maitland, north to Port Stephens and south to Warners Bay would be affected in varying degrees. We knew that the noise nuisance would be unbearable in our suburbs of Fern Bay and Stockton, but needed definite information on noise patterns. We consulted Marrickville Council who sent us noise profiles of their area and the corresponding distances from aircraft noise sources. One of our members painstakingly superimposed maps of each area and eventually worked out the noise profile for Newcastle. Published in the Hunter papers under the title of 'CIRCLES OF PAIN', it caused a stir among those residents who had thought that this was a Stockton/Mayfield/Fern Bay problem only, and their suburbs were safe.
We could not find out which areas would be resumed because they were directly under the flight path, and what the recompense payment would be. Then a sympathetic 'mole' as we say in espionage circles, gave us confidential documents that had been intended to pacify Port Stephens councillors worried about their constituents. These detailed the resumption of property most affected by noise. Many were expected- all North Stockton, The Stockton Developmental Disability Hospital, Wescott Aged Care facility in Stockton and St Joseph's Home for the Aged at Hexham. But as well, all of the 108 properties in the beautiful pastoral suburb of Black Hill and hundreds of houses on a line from Black Hill to Kooragang. This was to be the turning circles for take-offs and landings when the wind prevented a direct flight path out to sea. The noise circle of pain widened considerably and we were winning the public on the noise nuisance alone.
Then we obtained a book by Paul Fitzgerald, The Sydney Airport Fiasco, detailing the terrible effects the Third Runway had on Sydney suburbs from Hunters Hill to Mascot. We learned about 'Kerosene Alley', the three kilometre wide path made by the burning off of aircraft fuel when landing and taking off. The smell of this carcinogenic mist was hated even more than the noise. Respiratory troubles and depressive illness increased because of this. People were advised to stay inside a sealed house for several minutes after a plane flew over and much money was spent on sealing and air-conditioning public buildings. Schools were ordered to keep their pupils under cover in this sealed environment all day, but that order was enforced for a mere three weeks as pupils and teachers went crazy and revolted against this incarceration. We added up the schools, the pre-schools and the aged care institutions and hospitals that would have to be sealed in the five km radius of our 'Circles of Pain' and published those statistics, with ominous references to the number of private homes that would be affected.
The proponents increased the emphasis on their winning slogan - 'Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs'. They promised a construction work force of 9,550 (we liked the pernickety accounting - down to the last 50) and promised up to 75,000 direct and indirect jobs in the long term. Our Airport Expert, Peter Morris, ex-Minister for Aviation and Transport, now a director on the board of Williamtown airport among others, pointed out that Australia's biggest airport, Sydney, had a maximum work-force of 63,000 - so that Kooragang would be huge, if it was to employ more staff than Sydney. Peter questioned the veracity of the figures, but the jobs argument went down well in post-BHP Newcastle where many people were looking for work.
Of course Abi-group kept quiet about their intended removal of what they considered dangerous and intrusive industries from Kooragang and nearby industrial areas. The only other suitable deep-sea port was Gladstone in Queensland, so the relocation would result in a loss of a thousand odd local jobs and greatly diminish Newcastle port. Similarly the closure of the domestic airport at Williamtown and downsizing the RAAF base would have to follow. The workforces of both areas were not amused. But the word 'jobs' still won over many.
The battle waxed fiercely on the environmental front. Abi-group admitted that the Ramsar status Kooragang Bird Sanctuary was important for our overseas image, and so they would spend lots of money moving it inland. We offered to travel to China, Siberia, Japan and Canada to find out how to construct signs in appropriate languages so that the birds would turn left at the Hunter mouth and fly inland, by-passing the roosts they had used for countless years.
Our Bird Expert, Dr Max Maddock, from the Wetlands Society, put out eleven beautifully printed sheets on the major species that frequented the Hunter and the huge numbers in which they flocked. He also pointed out that jets flying through these flocks were in peril of crashing as bird-strike and the ingesting of the birds into the jet engines was a major cause of aircraft accidents. The Shortland and Kooragang Wetlands teams sent us invaluable information on the flora and fauna that would disappear forever as the low-flying aircraft sprayed these fragile eco-systems with the carbonised benzene mixture.
The professional fishermen, the oyster growers association and the Hunter River prawners pointed out that damaging the breeding grounds by destroying the water quality in the river and its waterways would put an end to their industries, not only here but right up the coast as the Hunter is a nursery for prawns, fish and crustaceans. They were angered that years of work cleaning up the polluted river would now be nullified.
Another expert whose speciality is surfing and whose knowledge of the beaches and the coastal seas is encyclopaedic is Nobby Edwards of the Surfriders Association. He rallied members from all over the eastern seaboard. His impassioned speech at our first public meeting, on 3 May 1999, was a triumph and swung the youth of the area to our cause.
The siting of the runways and the declaration that the winds were almost always from the east had us search out an expert from the University faculties of Aviation and Meteorology, Martin Babakhan, who supplied us with detailed records and wind patterns for the whole area. Our local expert on Aviation, Bruce Niblett, who had retired to Stockton after 26 years with the RAAF, explained the routes that must be taken with each change of wind direction - and demolished Abi-group's claim that jets would fly "[i]n and out over Stockton only". Merewether and Maitland began to feel wary.
Bruce also alerted us to the fact that the huge coal stockpiles that are massed on the island were a major danger to the jets. Coal dust is ingested by jet engines, clogging the delicate mechanisms and causing crashes. Abi-group's solution was that Hunter coal must be transported by train or truck to Queensland to be shipped from Gladstone. When told that the mine owners would not tolerate that extra expense, SKIA came up with the idea of moving the Stockton Centre for the Mentally Disadvantaged from its site on the peninsular, replacing the hospital with coal stock-piles and wharves in order to save the Hunter the enormous loss of port revenue. We pointed out that the North arm of the river was too shallow to accommodate the huge cargo ships, so they announced it would be dredged, repeating their boast of "We talk in billions of dollars, not millions. Nothing is too expensive for us". They obviously still held fast to the belief that the northerly winds did not exist and that by dumping the coal less than two kms north of the airport, they had removed the danger of coal dust ingestion.
Another of Abi-group's selling points was the Very Fast Train (VFT) to Sydney. This was an integral requirement for setting up the airport. Also, as Abi-group boasted, not only would it get passengers to Chatswood (we still don't know why this suburb was chosen as a destination) in 44 minutes, but it would make Sydney so quickly accessible that Novocastrians could regard it as our shopping and entertainment centre. Some senior citizens were over joyed! They could pop down to Sydney for morning tea with the kids every day or so, on their three dollar concession ticket.
Abi-group did not mention in their brochures that the ticket cost would be closer to $400 return - and there would be no concessions. The estimated cost for VFT rail system would be approximately two billion dollars, and that necessitated a $500 fare increase on every trip to Sydney through Kooragang. The airport's real customers were the airline companies, and they were not pleased. The necessity for each of them to duplicate in North Stockton the same storage and repair depots that they already had at Mascot, the inconvenience of this out-of the way stop for their flight crews, plus the added cost of Sydney tickets, led them to prophesy that Melbourne and Brisbane would be far more attractive destinations for their passengers than Sydney.
Our local Federal member, Alan Morris, spoke to the two VFT construction firms, Speedrail and Maglev. Neither had been seriously consulted by Abi-group but their names were used in advertisements. The difficulties of the terrain in the sandstone area of Gosford were a major drawback for both systems. The rail would most likely be forced underground from Wyong South by this, plus the fact that land resumptions in Sydney for a second aboveground system would be massive. The project seemed to be more fantasy than fact.
John Anderson, Federal Minister for Aviation and Transport, answered our letters with firm assurances that the Sydney International Airport would not be built outside a 50km radius of the city centre. The Prime Minister's letters agreed, though not quite as forcefully. Only the MPs from Western Sydney appeared to want Kooragang. The mystery deepened. Why was Abi-group continuing to pour money into boosting Kooragang when no one thought it could happen?
In June 1999 SKIA proposed a scheme that at first seemed likely to win support for their airport but ended up alienating hundreds. SKIA announced a competition for school children. It involved an essay pointing out the wonderful advantages accruing to the city from having the new Sydney International Airport on Kooragang. The prize would be a fortnight's holiday in New Zealand for a whole family, all expenses paid and the essay published in newspapers. A glittering prize indeed! The media gave it enthusiastic coverage, but many horrified parents and teachers rang us, sending us dodgers that were being distributed to each school child. The judge was to be the big developer who was the head of SKIA. We wrote to the executives of the local Public and Catholic schools systems, pointing out that such commercialism was against the stated principles of both systems and that the topic was already causing community divisions and so should not be encouraged in schools. They both banned any further participation in the competition in their schools. The furore in the papers grew as people protested against using children to further commercial interests. SKIA offered to rewrite the promotional material and even offered us a say, but we refused, and were content to reap the benefits of the failure of this attempt to involve children in a propaganda venture.
Finally they paid a top reporter from the Newcastle Herald to spend a few weeks in Manchester, England to find out how their residents reacted to having an airport in their city limits. Naturally, on the old principle of the piper being paid to play the right tune, he came back in June 2000 with reports of how delighted the Manchurians were with the noise and the smell. We suggested that he now go to Sydney, at much less expense, to ask the Sydneysiders why they had 'No Airport Noise' groups springing up in every suburb. Neither the paper nor the proponents took up the suggestions.
I have included all these issues to show how a community can win through. Hard cold facts, not appeals to sentiment, win arguments but the facts must be right. So we sought and found experts to counter each claim put forward by the proponents. These experts not only supplied us with information but also came to speak at our big public meetings. The first, at Stockton on 3 May 1999, attracted about 400 people who heard the member for Paterson call for an enquiry into the airport proposal, saying the airport's backers were heavily lobbying in Canberra without first knowing the wishes of the people affected by the plan.
The second public meeting was held in the City Hall with more than 800 people in attendance. Surprisingly the event received little coverage from the Newcastle Herald but did attract better coverage from radio and television media. Peter Morris told the meeting "[t]he proposal at its best is fanciful and at its worst is ludicrous. Thousands of people in the region were being caused needless worry about the prospects of the airport being constructed in Newcastle." The Lord Mayor, Greg Heys said the council was concerned about the environmental impact of the proposal while Alan Morris, member for Newcastle said: "I have no doubt the proposal will sink. There's no real substance to it." As well as giving our campaign publicity, many people at the meeting made much needed donations to defray our expenses.
Pat Keating received loud applause when she told the meeting that over 5000 people had signed a petition opposing the airport. "[I]t will affect our way of life, our environment and our community. We're telling them the proposal is unacceptable."
We discovered that the media must be used, even if at first the talkback radio jocks, the editorials and articles in the papers are against the protesters. It is no good gathering wonderful arguments if no one hears them. The ABC is always impartial and gives both sides a hearing and that often leads to a follow-up by other media. Letters to the Editor are a useful way to stir up interest and get a message across. Rallies complete with lots of gaudy banners attract TV cameras and reporters. We never refused a request to give an interview or to address a meeting. It was hard and constant work, but it was also fun.
Our CAKA meetings were informal but useful sources for new ideas. Each member seemed to have a special bent - some were computer experts, some could design posters to go in shop windows, some could write excellent articles and letters, but all came up with bright ideas and all carried out the hard slog of letterboxing, etc.
We found allies in unexpected places. We even found two balladeers, Roma Duff and David Ross, who wrote protest songs and sang them at meetings and rallies. We were surprised at the help from the Sydney Councils, especially Marrickville, who could have refused to help and tried to foist their noise problems onto us. They not only answered our questions but also sent scads of useful material. The author of the third runway book, Paul Fitzgerald, spoke at our meeting and continued to send names of contacts such as respiratory and mental health doctors to use as contacts. Local councils and most local politicians assisted us in many ways. We were helped by hundreds of ordinary folk as well, and that groundswell of support drove the airport away.
By mid-1999, the airport proposal had hit a few
snags.
Community silence on a proposal is taken as consent. So our campaign was necessary, even if the reluctance of the International Airlines to detour to Kooragang was a big factor. The campaign led to our organisation being treated with respect, and encouraged us to go on to fight other battles. Starting without money and expertise we were able to gather enough help to drive the threat away. Any mention of the Kooragang International Airport now causes derision instead of fear and that was perhaps our ultimate aim.
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