OPENING OF TULLAMARINE AIRPBORT
MELBOURNE, Vic. 1LJULY 1970
Spe c byj the Prime Minister,. Mr. ohn Gorton-
Mr. Premier, My Lord Mayor, Parliamentary Colleagues and Ladies and
Gentlemen: just about six years ago, on a very dank and drizzling and miserable
September day, in my capacity as Minister for Works, I drove the bulldozer which
turned the first sod for the construction of this air-port.
And very glad indeed I was to do it for two reasons. One was that it
began construction of an airport sooner than it had been thought construction woulld
begin. And the other was that I had escaped the conisequen~ ces of taking a rather
risky gamble. You see, what happens when edifices of this k,, inrd are constructed by the
Government is that after the basic decision, the Department of Works prepares
general plans and then those general plans are submitted to the Parliamentary
Committee on Public Works. And only after the Parliamentary Committee on
Public Works has agreed to the general plans are the detailed plans proceeded with.
This is a very good and a very proper way of going on. But in this particular case
I felt it would add an inordinate time to the date on which construction should begin,
so I instructed the Department of Works to assume that tihe ? arliamentary Public
Works Committee would agree to the general plans and to go right ahead with the
detailed plans. This was a very reprehensible thing to do and I hope it will never
be repeated by any Minister for Works. But the end result was, because the
Committee did agree with the general plans, that we were able to start much sooner,
and I was able tu avoid the embarrassment which would have uccurred if the
Committee had not agreed to what we had put forward. Those were the two reasons
why I was glad to be able on that day to begin this construction.
And I remember then that the whole 5, 000 acres of farmland which was
to become this airport gave the impression of being nothing but a sea of mud and
a rather bleak and a rather repellent cold rural scene. But now today, Tulla marine...
I like the name " Tulla marine.... I'll have more to say about that later, but now
today Tullamarine and that farmland has been transformed into Melbourne airport.
It has become a significant addition to the aviation maps oZ the world, an international
airport international because those who planned it were progressive and
imaginative in their thinking international in siz-e and its sophistication, and
international because it will provide truly internatio-nal services.
So today Tullamarine phases Victoria the international airline
circuit and offers facilities to travellers as a port of arrival and of departure equal
to any facilities offered anywhere in the world. Cne more window on the world for
Australia, one more window through which the world car. look at Australia, and
for that reason, I think, a big day for us.
This, as you were told by Senator Cotton, has been a record year for
Australian civil aviation.... two international terminals completed in our largest
cities within weeks of each other and record numbers of passengers carried. And
this year we celebrate fifty years of civil aviation and the fiftieth birthday of Qantas
Quee11sland and Northern Territory Air Service which, you may remember, began
with these old machines looking as if they were tied together with wire, in
Queensland and in the Northern Territory, and which today gives its name to our
international service. We have come a long way in half a century to rank as we do amongst
the first six nations of the world, and we can take pride in that. But in taking
pride in it, let us look back a little, let urp look back to past exa~ mples of services
to aviation, because looking back to past examples may sustain a vision for the
future. Let us remember men like Hudson Fysh, Kingsford Smith, Bert Hinkler
and a host of other Australians, and let us never forget that they were the first to
cross the great oceans of the world, except the North Atlantic, andi even there
Harry Hawker almost made it. These were the men who blazed the trails across
hitherto untravelled skies.
So this airport stands today as a monument, as I see it, to the men
of the past and it stands as a promise for what we can do in the future. There are
no limits to the distance we can go if we plan well, if we build well as I think we
have done here and if we are inspired to venture in the years to come, as the
pioneers of aviation of whom I have spoken were inspired to venture in their time.
Sir, before 1 declare this airport open, there are two things I would
like to say. When I declare it open, I am going to call it Melbourne Airport, and
that is what It will officially be. But I hope and I believe and this is a personal
hope and belief that that lovely liquid name " Tullamarine" will not disappear
from our vocabulary, and that around the world Tullamarine Melbourne Airport
in brackets, or if you like: Melbourne Airport Tullamarine In brackets, will be
known by names such as La Guardia or Heathrow or whatever it may be.
So when I do declare it open, I do it in the hope that it will be known
not only as Melbourne Airport bout as Tullamarine and that as Tullamarine, it will
be an airport able to operate for seven days a week and for twenty-four hours a
day. And I hope and believe this will be so if for no other reason than when there
is an investment of this size then the more use that it got from it the better it is
for everybody. And there is no need for an airport not to operate, provided those
living around it are not harassed by the noise of such operation. Those living
around Tullamarine now, 1 believe, would not be so harassed, and it is our
intention as a government that this airport should so operate, subject in the future
to just this one qualification that the State authorities concerned see that there is
not built up around the perimeter of this airport hcusing settlements which, in the
future, might lead to great noise discomfort to those living in them.
Having the airport, let us have a buffer zone around it, and it then
will operate as an international airport should.
Ladies and gentlement, 1 declare Melbourne Airport open and unveil
the plaque which records the event.