Melbourne's third airport fiasco

Plans for a third Melbourne airport to be built at Koo Wee Rup are doomed to failure. The plan was first mooted decades ago and has re-emerged every few years – to be rejected by residents and airlines as totally impractical. The Koo Wee Rup swamp is prime agricultural land, producing 90% of Australia's asparagus, growing exports worth over $18.5 million a year. This hair-brained proposal is from a private investment source and they say they will not require funding from the Government. The State Government and local Councils are unlikely to give planning approval.Land acquisition costs alone would total billions of dollars because of land values. In addition, the high water table would present huge technical difficulties in constructing runways. Even road building presents major difficulties and when a highway is built anywhere in the swamp, construction crews are back within weeks repairing subsidence problems. Passenger jets landing on the runways would be likely to disappear – never to be seen again!