Wilton Airport still too far away - Labor's 1985 report rings true - The Daily Telegraph

SYDNEY travellers would reject an airport at Wilton because of its remoteness - that was the damning assessment of an environmental impact study done on the proposed airport site in 1985.

The report also found significant environmental problems with the location, 81km southwest of Sydney.

"The probability is a large proportion of the Sydney resident travel market could not be persuaded to use the second airport," the report found.

The report said an airport at Wilton would take 102 minutes to drive to from the city, compared to just 69 minutes for Badgerys Creek. If rail links were extended to each site, the report estimated it would take 90 minutes to Wilton and 72 minutes to Badgerys Creek. The 1985 study compared the impact of building a two-runway airport at Wilton and Badgerys Creek and was a factor in the Hawke government's decision to begin buying land at the latter site, which was later mothballed.

Interest in the site southwest of Sydney was revived early this year after the federal government ignored the advice of its own report, which recommended Badgerys Creek as the preferred site for a second Sydney airport, and announced a scoping study into the feasibility of Wilton.

The report, due to be finished early next year, has reportedly already discovered serious environmental issues.

The 1985 report found Wilton was of "high ecological value" and a canal system would need to be built around the site to stop pollution running into Sydney's water catchment.

An airport at Wilton would also mean the destruction of more than 1100ha of pristine bushland.

"The site is regarded as having significant value for the preservation of the flora of the Sydney region and of the state as a whole," the report found.

The original EIS found Wilton had the twin benefits of cheaper land acquisition costs and fewer people affected by aircraft noise.

But a recent joint state-federal report into Sydney's aviation capacity found that many of Wilton's advantages had been nullified by the Hawke's government's acquisition of land at Badgerys Creek. The development of the M7 and South West Rail Link had also improved the viability of Badgerys Creek.