YKBN Kooralbyn QLD

[Sean]

I am looking for current YKBN information/condition and if possible a contact details of someone who has flown into Kooralbyn lately.

 

Cheers.

 

Sean

 

[email protected]

 

 

[dazza 38]

I flew over Kooralbyn a few days ago I did not land though. No body there , but that is not unusual. My folks live at Kooralbyn & they ask me whats happening there.lol Anyway, the Bitumen runway is in bad condition, with pot holes & grass growing through it in places. If landing there, land on the grass beside the runway.

 

As to who owns it ATM, I couldnt tell you I get told different things all the time since the resort went broke.

 

 

[Sean]

Cheers Dazza.

 

Grass it is then, I used the strip a few years ago and grass was the go.

 

I hope they have a new windsock by now, it had blown off the pole......

 

We are just stopping there for leg stretch (YCAB navex) and a cuppa if the store is open.

 

Fingers crossed for good flying weather.

 

 

[XP503]

doubt very much you will get a cuppa there, or a windsock for that matter, better off dropping via Boonah, lovely grass strip usually someone around.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

There is a petrol garage at the end of the runway near the hangars they are open and do have limited food there. We flew model jets there a few months ago some of the runway is in bad condition but model operations have been suspended as the koralbyn site has been sold to new owners so not sure about the main airfield ops

 

Mark

 

 

[dazza 38]

I just got off the phone to mum. I asked her who is the "latest" to buy the field.I say latest because there have been a few buyers who have eventually fell through. Anyway this is not concrete but it was in their local news paper only last week.

 

A group of Malaysian businessmen have put in a proposal to buy the whole lot. Golf Course, Resort, Polo club, International school and the Airfield. The locals have been concerned for a while because they would really like the place to be bought & renovated.Their house resale values have, as you can imagine fallen due to the resort & its infrastructure going to ruin.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

This was emailed to me on the 15th of November

 

Hi guys,

 

 

Just a quick email to let everyone know that the Kooralbyn facility is currently under contract to be sold. The MACK guys are currently negotiating their/our continued and future access with the relevant parties and will advise the outcome as soon as they have reached agreement. However during these negotiations the parties involved have requested that nobody gain access without their specific agreement.

 

 

This is the latest info I had

 

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sean]

Thanks Everyone.

 

I think I'll plan for Boonah instead, fingers crossed for good flying weather this Wednesday...!!

 

Sean.

 

 

[dazza 38]

Visited the Folks at Kooralbyn today. The local news paper reports that the overseas mob couldnt raise the money so the latest sale fell through but the paper also said that there are two Australian companies looking at buying the lot -Resort/Polo grounds/Airfield and the International school. My folks are trying to sell their joint there as well and according to their a local real estate agent, apparently there is a American firm which owns a couple of resorts in Australia already are looking into purchasing the joint. So as it stands ATM- Nothing has really happened apart from the place deteriorating more & more.

 

 

[kgwilson]

I heard that there was once a thriving Microlight club there and that a Skydiving outfit joined the club, took over, stripped the assets & left. Is there any truth to that rumour?

 

 

[dazza 38]

Not sure about that Kevin.There was skydiving there for a while a few years ago. And of course I did some drifter training there with HITC as my instructor back in 1988.

 

Somebody was/is training some of the International students from the school.This is through the grape vine- But he uses a Jabiru and is I think Sth African. This information I was told about a year or 2 ago.I have never seen anybody using the airfield for quite a while & I fly over it a fair bit.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

I heard that there was once a thriving Microlight club there and that a Skydiving outfit joined the club, took over, stripped the assets & left. Is there any truth to that rumour?

From the early 1980s there was a thriving ultralight school there for more than 20 years as well as up to 10 private ultralights hangared and flown from there. In around 1988-89 Brad Turner, fresh from his team's success in winning the World Skydiving Championships, set up a drop zone there and it was all good for a while but tensions developed between the flying school and the skydiving operation which were partly contributory to the demise of both of them.

The Resort ownerships (which include the 5 star star hotel, world class golf courses, airstrip, polo fields and equestrian centre, the International School and a lot of land (about 20,000 acres?) were a separate matter. It was sold several times to different consortia including Japanese, NZ, S Korea (I think) and then back to someone else, maybe Japanese again. Without mentioning names... one lot did asset strip it and sell it on again quite quickly as I understood it. Another tried to revive it and spent a heap trying to time-share it but Kooralbyn's an odd place, close to Brisbane and the Gold Coast, exceptionally scenic, tucked away a few kilometres off the highway and has everything going for it but just never 'took off' the way one would imagine it should have. In fact once Kerry Packer stopped going there regularly for Polo tournaments that was the death knell from my observation.

 

 

[Guest kooralbynairport]

Hi all, please check this out.

 

http://www.kooralbynairport.com.au/

 

Currently we are not accepting enquiries via email or phone.

 

 

[Sean]

Hi.

 

Good luck with the venture.

 

Lets us know when it's operational, it would be great to flyin once again.

 

Sean.

 

 

[rdarby]

Did I see a thread somewhere that this place was open and had a new runway? I am looking for places to fly where you can have lunch and I am sure there was a post on Kooralbyn?

 

 

[rdarby]

Found it: Kooralbyn