Straddie Aero Club closes

[Possum1]

For those of you who fly to various fly-in breakfasts in SEQ, it was announced yesterday(17/2/18) at the very belated 2016/17 club AGM, that the club was closing and no further memberships would be accepted.

 

The club has been operating a $20 fly-in breakfast at Dunwich Airfield, North Stradbroke Island, with many poorly advertised cancellations in the last few years and only six fly-in breakfasts out of twelve in 2017.

 

It was announced that the club's president, who is also sole director and shareholder of Stradbroke Air P/L, which operates the airfield, will run a breakfast through her company instead.

 

The reasons given for the closure of the club were lack of volunteers to run the breakfast and no nominations at all for any of the committee positions.

 

The club's assets of tables, chairs, umbrellas, cooking equipment, cutlery, crockery and one 6m x 3m two-room donga may be of interest to other clubs who might want to acquire them when they become available in the near future.

 

No-one could answer the question of how the company was going to operate a breakfast without any tables or chairs!

 

It would appear that the decks are being cleared for the sale of Dunwich Airfield Head Lease, which was canvassed in this other thread last year: North Stradbroke airpark ad?

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

From Old Man Emu :-

 

AIRFIELD CARETAKER REQUIRED.

 

Airfield Caretaker Required at Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island, QLD

 

 

 

Requirements: Need to be on a Pension, small amount paid fortnightly accordingly. Aviation knowledge preferred. General maintenance skills required. Able to use a tractor & ride on mower to maintain airstrip. A couple is preferred with own accommodation, ie: caravan. No power. Run on generator & solar power.

 

 

 

Ph: 0410 558 334.

 

 

[flasheart]

It would appear that the decks are being cleared for the sale of Dunwich Airfield Head Lease, which was canvassed in this other thread last year: North Stradbroke airpark ad?

This sale has been about to happen for a year now (with no sign of or visits by the potential buyers).

 

I can only think of one group who have access to the kind of money needed to pay the asking price:

 

Hey Queenslanders, come see your tax dollars at work!!!

 

 

[Possum1]

Airfield Caretaker Required at Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island, QLDRequirements: Need to be on a Pension, small amount paid fortnightly accordingly. Aviation knowledge preferred. General maintenance skills required. Able to use a tractor & ride on mower to maintain airstrip. A couple is preferred with own accommodation, ie: caravan. No power. Run on generator & solar power.

Obviously this is an awful ad, highly discriminatory and all negative. Someone on the pension is supposed to be too ill or too old to do all this work - and there is a lot of daily manual labour in this job. In addition to his normal caretaker duties, the current and outgoing caretaker has just finished a complete rebuild of the tractor engine for no charge to the owner!

 

This exact same ad was used last year when the previous caretakers advised the owner in April, of their intention to leave and foolishly told her that they would stay until she found a replacement. It took until September to find the current caretaker who is now also leaving also. The previous caretakers became so desperate that they put a much more pleasantly worded ad in greymomadsjobs.com and in facebook as well, leaving out the requirement to be on the pension.

 

I draw my own conclusions about why such an obnoxious ad would be placed that no-one in their right mind would answer. There is no mention about what a thoroughly pleasant and peaceful spot the airfield is or that there is a golf club 5 minutes drive away with stunning views that serves a better and bigger breakfast than what the aero club offers, and for $5 less.

 

 

[Possum1]

The reasons given for the closure of the club were lack of volunteers to run the breakfast and no nominations at all for any of the committee positions.

Of course there were many more reasons than these and they are certainly common causes of club failures e.g. misappropriation of club funds and

 

the club's president, who is also sole director and shareholder of Stradbroke Air P/L

conflicts of interest.

[Possum1]

More about Dunwich Airfield, North Stradbroke Island is on this thread: I want this job!!!!

 

 

[Possum1]

The SGM was held today March 17, to decide on the club's future. There was an almost unanimous decision by voters to shut the club down.

 

Three days before this meeting a formal search for the previous meeting's financial records revealed that the president of the club had taken a cash advance of thousands of dollars in payment to her company which runs the airfield against the next financial year's income of the club, then did not mention this had happened in her next year's financial statement currently before the meeting.

 

The president then had her long-time solicitor, just an ordinary club member, chair the meeting instead of her or one of the committee members which is what usually happens. As a result the financial statement was briefly mentioned to have "anomalies", but not dealt with. Yes, the meeting was a pre-scripted circus!

 

 

[Possum1]

Stradbroke Air P/L, the lessee of Dunwich Airfield, North Stradbroke Island, held its first fly-in breakfast in November under the auspices of its new food business licence from Redland City Council.

 

The Council confirms that, "Stradbroke Air P/L has undergone a food application licence process and currently holds a food business licence with Redland City Council." This is despite clandestine attempts to hold a fly-in breakfast without a food licence since the Straddie Aero Club was de-registered back in May 2018. The company has mysteriously acquired the old club's tables, chairs, umbrellas, fridge, urn etc. to use for its breakfast, which were supposed to have been donated to another club.

 

Is this the only instance of a business conducting a fly-in breakfast in this country? It remains to be seen how this will continue with the new, expensive compliance costs and wages to be paid.