Toow can’t be serious
It’s a two-hour drive but council wants ‘garden city’ airstrip to be gateway to Coast
IT’S a two-hour drive away but council hopes the state’s “garden city” of Toowoomba could hold the key to fertilising the Gold Coast’s tourism market.
Worried that Gold Coast Airport may not be able to handle ever-increasing visitor numbers, Mayor Tom Tate wants Toowoomba to be an alternative gateway to the city.
The Toowoomba airstrip, known as Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport and which opened last year, is being developed to be able to take domestic and eventually international flights.
It is one of two airports under the microscope by Gold Coast City Council as part of its plans to bring more people to the region.
The “three-airport strategy” would repackage the Glitter Strip experience with an em- phasis on links between Brisbane and Toowoomba.
The push is hoped to bring in visitors attracted by the wider variety of holiday experiences.
Cr Tate will write to airport bosses to discuss the concept, which he said would help deal with the tourist “bottleneck” the city faces as its aviation facilities prepare to undergo a multimillion-dollar upgrade.
“We will see the Gold Coast Airport truly become an inter- national gateway and there will be more direct flights and I would go so far as to say that overseas travellers will be able to look at us here as three different places to land,” he said.
“We cannot ignore the role of Brisbane and Toowoomba in bringing people here, even if they spend time in other places first.
“As we aspire to become a premier tourist destination we need to acknowledge the bottlenecks in getting tourists here and the airport does have a capacity which is not infinite, as does Brisbane.
“Our long-term thinking is to gear things so that we can attract tourists to these three major airports.”
Cr Tate has suggested helicopters could be used to ferry visitors between Toowoomba and the Coast.
It comes soon after the council set up its City Aviation Committee which is chaired by economic development direc- tor Darren Scott and is working to secure direct flights between the Gold Coast and China.
While agreements have already been struck between Cr Tate, Queensland Airport boss Paul Donovan and leaders of Chinese cities Chengdu and Wuhan to have China-based airlines fly directly to Australia, none have landed yet.
It had been hoped the flights would begin in February.