The Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba is Australia’s first greenfield public airport development to be constructed for almost 50 years. It is also the first privately funded major public airport in the nation’s history.
The airport’s $200 million first stage is expected to accept close to 84,000 passengers per annum with plans to expand its capacity to 1.4 million passengers by the end of the decade.
The Toowoomba region has not been serviced by a jet capable airport since the city’s founding.
The airport also claims to be one of the world’s greenest developments.
The 300 hectare development is capable of handling aircrafts up to a Boeing 747's size on its 2.87km-long runway and has an 8000 square metre terminal facility that will serve as the anchor tenant of the wider Wellcamp Business Park.
Both projects are being developed by the family-run Wagner Group.
The site was originally a quarry for the business, a fact that aided the speed of the development given there was no need for a protracted tender or contracting period.
Raw materials from the pit were used in the contraction process, including around 10 million tonnes of rock.
The airport’s green claims are based on the use of Wagners’ earth friendly concrete.
EFC is a concrete that uses a geopolymer binder made from blast furnace slag [waste from iron production] and fly ash [waste from coal-fired power generation].
Wagners claims the concrete creates between 80-90% fewer carbon emissions than ordinary Portland cement, while boasting engineering and construction properties that are as good as, or better than, normal concrete.
More than 30,000 cubic metres of EFC was used to build the airport, which Wagners estimated saved more than 6600 tonnes of carbon emissions.
In 2011, the group won the Queensland Premier’s ClimateSmart Award for the development of EFC.
Wellcamp Business Park will also utilise rainwater harvesting and an onsite wastewater treatment system that will be reticulated throughout the development for amenities flushing and irrigation of landscaping.
Excess water produced by the system will be used to irrigate Wagner-owned cropland nearby.
Qantas began flights to Sydney out of the airport on November 17 this year. These flights will be joined by Regional Express Airlines on January 1, 2015.
Wagners is also hoping to be involved in the $1.6 billion Toowoomba Second Range Crossing project as part of the RangeLink consortium Ostwald Bros and FKG.
RangeLink is one of three groups on the shortlist.
TSRC is a proposed bypass of Toowoomba located adjacent to the airport.
The airport location is also near the Australian standard gauge inland rail corridor which will link Melbourne with Brisbane, providing a potential road-air-rail hub in the future.
