Lord Howe's Airline

Future Is Still In The Balance

Prom a Correspondent

Lord Howe Island’s mz problem—what to do when flying boats go—still hasn’t b< solved. And islanders are app hensive about the result.

T °Rd Howe Island Is <

.miles north-east of Sydney p ?™l y il comes under the ’st of NSW, controlled through the land Board which meets in Sydi every three months.

It depends for its livelihood tourism. More than 3,000 touri visited the island in 1962, stayi on an average of 14 days. A lai proportion of the tourists are regul; —people who come back time a again. In early April this year °T j B P ests at one guest house h stayed there on previous occasions.

The tourist trade is growing at t rate of 300 people a year and Airlines of NSW, which operates t flying boat service from Sydney- Lx)rd Howe’s only passenger conne tion to the mainland—has announo it will operate four services a we< from next season.

No Replacement

But the flying boats are becomii obsolete. Ansett, which is the con pany owning Airlines of NSW, a< vised the island authorities some tin ago that there was no possibility ( replacing the Sandringhams.

The company offered substantii financial aid for a land strip to b built on condition they retained th franchise to operate the service. Th offer was rejected.

It became obvious, however, tha the airstrip was the only alternativ to the flying boat service.

Lord Howe is very hilly, and tw< mountains at the southern end of th< island rise to almost 3,000 ft. Th( island is merely seven miles lon* and only half a mile wide on ar average, and there is not much roon for a strip.

Preliminary surveys, including wind tunnel tests, were made to determine whether land strips could be built.

It soon became clear that to get a sufficiently long runway any strip

i have to extend into the lagoon, possibly right on to the reef, and some houses would have to be id. iginally two strips were thought ble, but recently it has been con >d that one strip, located mainly he lagoon, should do the job, work has been put in hand to ; a hydrographic survey of the »n, a survey of suitable filling rial and an investigation into

the effect of waves on the proposed strip.

It would not, of course, be the first time that an airstrip on a coral lagoon has been built. Both Tahiti and Pago Pago, American Samoa, have international standard airstrips, built on the coral.

It is likely to be a month or two yet before this survey work is com pleted and meanwhile the Island Board has been concerned about the

delay. The members want the situ ation to be resolved quickly.

The question of finance is a big one and estimates range from £300,000 to £1 million depending on the final choice of site. These figures are probably only arbitrary.

The delay about Lord Howe’s aviation future has given local people plenty of time to develop thoughts and rumours of their own. The current belief on the island is that the NSW Government has definite leanings towards East West Airlines and intends to give this company, which operates in NSW in opposition to the Ansett company, the Lord Howe licence if the airstrip goes in.

There are also rumours that Airlines of NSW are looking for Solent flying boats to replace the Sandringhams and thus avoid the need for an air strip.

There are two schools of thought on Lord Howe about the airstrip plans.

Some people naturally are un happy at losing land or having to shift house to make way for the strip —especially those who are getting on in years. And most islanders are also conscious of the fact that the airstrip would bring great commercialism to the island, which for years has had a get-away-from-it-all character which

Lord Howe Island from Mt. Malabar. The lagoon is on the right.

has been the very thing which attracted the tourists.

Flying boat days are like the 1 days of other small islands in Pacific—such as Niue, and Norfo] they are Red Letter days. The atmosphere of being cut off f civilisation will go once there is airstrip on the island which can down passengers unannounced vi ally at any time of the day.

But others realise that Lord H< just won’t keep going once the flj boats cease, and that a land s could mean the difference betw life and death.

General attitude among Lord H< people is that they want an airs on the island only as a last reson