Somewhere in the township of Spring Hill, 10 minutes from Orange, there’s a eucalyptus tree that doesn’t know its days may be somewhat numbered.

Of course, all trees live with that – either eventually dying naturally or hacked down or ringbarked for some purpose or another. Don’t we all.

But this eucalyptus lies in the landing path that planes into Orange Airport may soon use, and it’ll be a “critical object” – towering too high, that is – when the proposed expansion of the airport to handle jets like the Boeing 737 comes about.

The tree’s demise is forecast in a quaintly titled Review of Orange Aerodrome Master Plan, just released by Orange City Council, which states: “The approach surface [to the airport landing strip] passing over this object determines the location of the runway strip end.

“It may be possible to remove this obstacle. However there are permanent man-made objects including power poles and a church spire that are not much lower in height than the critical object.”

However, the report indicates the tree may survive if the proposed runway 29 approach to the airport is rejected. “Extending the runway in this direction is not ideal,” it says, “because of the proximity of the Springhill township.”

The master plan confirms a lot of the news about the airport expansion project that ONN broke way back in October – that the existing 1,676-metre runway could be extended to 2,200 metres in a first stage upgrade, and that the Boeing 737-800 aircraft has been used as the model for future airport capacity and capability.

However the report also mentions that “a further extension of the runway for another 400 metres  is possible [with] a total runway length achievable [of] 2,600 metres. “  And there’s even more possibly to come.

“It is not envisaged that the runway would need to be lengthened beyond 2,600 metres in the next 20 years,” it states. “However if aircraft operations dictate that a longer runway is required then it would be possible to extend the runway … approximately 250 metres. This would give an overall maximum length of 2,850 metres.”

MINING FLIGHTS BOOSTING ORANGE AIR TRAFFIC

Of course, all this is only of real interest to the planners and builders, but the report confirms that it’s the heavy passenger traffic added by the Cadia gold mine operations that’s the prime trigger for the expansion.

While there’s not been an overall increase in Regional Express passenger numbers, it says “overall passenger numbers have increased with the introduction of two closed charter operations to transport Newcrest employees between Brisbane-Orange-Telfer (WA) return, and Melbourne-Orange-Brisbane return.”

The mining charter flights and an increase in air freight, ultralight and helicopter movements has boosted the aircraft activity from 15,400 “movement” a year forecast in 2006 to a current 21,000 annually. Interestingly ultralight movements have doubled from 3,000 to 6,000 a year.

But the report says despite the increased activity. And the incoming larger 737 planes, “there is no need to calculate [or forecast] the busiest peak hour for the next 10 t0 15 years.

“The current runway configuration has the capacity for handling over 50,000 aircraft movements per annum, and this number would increase if a taxiway was constructed parallel to {the] runway, as runway occupancy time by aircraft would be reduced.”

So, it’s very likely we’re going to get a bigger Orange “aerodrome” sometime in the future. As for when, we have to take account of the processes disclosed by Mayor John Davis in his video interview with ONN last week.

Here’s what he said: