Bush Travel Grounded As Airlines Take Flight

Sun Herald

Sunday November 16, 2008

By DENIS GREGORY and JONATHAN DART

IT'S just over 100 years since the first black opal was found at Lightning Ridge, prompting a mad rush to open up the frontier in northern NSW.

The town's descendants face renewed isolation amid ruthless cuts by Australia's regional airlines, despite receiving subsidies from the Federal Government to keep the vital links open.

For Lightning Ridge, with a population just shy of 2000, the changes will mean a regression to the 1970s, before air services were introduced.

The small town is now less accessible and more expensive to reach from Sydney than places such as Fiji and New Zealand.

Regional Express will axe services between Mudgee, Cobar, Bourke, Coonamble, Walgett and Lightning Ridge from December 20. The carrier has also reduced services to Griffith and cut services to the snowfields.

QantasLink will also pull out of the Sydney-Narrabri service and has cut the number of services to Tamworth.

It will mean a traveller from Sydney heading to Lightning Ridge will have to book a one-hour flight to Dubbo and then make the four-hour drive north.

Without a car the trip is even more arduous. Because Regional Express only has two flights a day - the earliest leaves Sydney at 3.25pm - it is not possible to link up with the daily CountryLink coach service, which leaves at 2.30pm each day and takes about 4 1/2 hours.

In contrast, Qantas and Jetstar flights to Christchurch in New Zealand take about three hours.

The $188 needed to travel by plane and CountryLink coach to Lightning Ridge compares with a $198 ticket to Christchurch on Jetstar.

Walgett Shire Council mayor Ian Woodcock, a resident of Lightning Ridge, said the cuts would be a blow to the standard of living in regional NSW. "It makes it hard for health professionals, or [government] ministers, who might have to make the trip up here for the day," he said.

Aviator and businessman Dick Smith said a lack of policy by the previous federal government is to blame for the cuts to services.

"It was terrible neglect by the government although the present Government doesn't have any policy either to guarantee a viable aviation industry in the bush," he said.

"[They] should have got rid of the unnecessary regulatory costs required by a small airline that are not required anywhere else in the world."

Regional Express managing director Jim Davis blamed increased government regulatory requirements, shortage of pilots, high fuel prices and the economy in general for the cuts.

He said the routes were not subsidised by the State Government and a Federal Government rebate scheme of $6 million a year towards air traffic control charges would be phased out by 2012.

© 2008 Sun Herald

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