Please find the update below: 

Outcome:

Neither Airservices Australia nor Rio Tinto received any objections or feedback regarding the planned decommissioning of the Argyle Aerodrome and its associated navigation aids.

Rio Tinto will continue remediation and rehabilitation activities in the area, with full decommissioning of the aerodrome and all related navigation aids scheduled for 23 September 2025.

The final day of aerodrome operations will be Monday 22 September 2025.

Feedback has been received, please refer to the below.  

Gympie Aerodrome (YGYM) Working Party – a subcommittee of the QLD AvSEF, C/O Gympie Regional Council, PO Box 155, Gympie QLD 4570

Responses to submission:

WindBorne only received 1 response to the open consultation. We were contacted by a Staff Officer of Strategic Air Plans at the Directorate of Operations and Training Area Management Headquarters for the Department of Defence.  His questions related to how we were going to be managing restricted airspace.  I connected him with another Defence member who we had already been working with on this matter.  He found this satisfactory and has not asked for any further information.

This was an initial scoping exercise to ascertain some feedback from the civilian flying community should Defence decide to decommission the YMES NDB. At the time of the AvSEF submission, no decision to decommission the NDB had been made. 

One comment was received from a civilian pilot with the following response: "Not a problem. I thought R564A was H24 anyway and I either overfly above 4000 or around if R564B is operational."

Defence have also undertaken targeted consultation that will accompany Form 1284 submission.

Southern Launch would like to thank the Forum’s members for their engagement with this proposal. Please be advised that the Koonibba Rising Rocket launch has been delayed until early 2025 – resultantly, no airspace restrictions will be in place in November 2024.

The new launch window will be described in a follow-up AvSEF listing expected to be live for consultation before the end of the year. Please also refer to the Southern Launch website for the latest update on mission timings.

Southern Launch would like to thank the forum members for their engagement and feedback on the proposed airspace management solution for the WB-2 satellite return. The responses supported the layered temporary restricted area (TRA) and temporary danger area (TDA) solution and noted that the night-time return and limited activation window would result in no or minimal impact on routine operations.  

The proposed airspace volume took in two Defence Restricted Areas which will be active during the competition. The proposed airspace volume was altered to excise these areas.

Appendix A: 

Southern Launch would like to thank the Forum and its members for your engagement with this proposal.

Unfortunately, delays to the readiness of our customer’s launch vehicle have resulted in a postponement of the VS02/3 launch campaign beyond 31 October 2023 to 14 November 2023. As a result, no airspace restrictions will be put in place during this period.

We will publish a new consultation paper advising of the revised launch window once it has been determined.

We have received one response to this consultation from a pilot and aircraft owner in Queensland. The received response was in support for the proposal.

We will proceed with filing the required airspace change proposal (ACP) documents with CASA in the coming days.