If you happen to be out at the Albury Airport you will notice that the place is a hive of activity as they get the place ready no doubt to impress the expected 600 delegates who are expected to attend the 2010 Local Government Association NSW Conference to be held in Albury from 24 October - 27 October. This is the blue ribbon event of municipal junkets and there is much eating and drinking. It is held annually in various localities throughout New South Wales, councillors look forward to it because they can kick up their heels a bit in a spirit of conviviality and camaraderie. That's not to say important issues are not discussed but they are done so in a relatively relaxed atmosphere which is probably one of the few occasions they can engage each other in a relaxed atmosphere far from the council they represent and the intrigue and backstabbing that goes on there. It has been known for delegates to engage in acts of adultery - (no doubt after a skinfull although this is not obligatory) I suppose seeing they are consenting adults makes it all hunky-dory though there are unforeseen eventualities that are sometimes embarrassing as the snippet from our June 2008 edition testifies.
Here Borderline is insistent that it is making no moral judgment on such behaviour. What puzzles Borderline is how two delegates after an hour or so of enthusiastic bonking you can get your nametags mixed up. Were they so exhausted they didn't know who they were - stranger things have happened. There are numerous scenarios that spring to mind but for the sake of decency further elaboration might offend Borderline's more puritanical readers. Of course if any reader can shed more light on further possible circumstances that could have led to such an outcome a discrete email to borderlinealburywodonga.com.au would be appreciated if only to put Borderline's mind to rest.
I suppose one could always ask the person in question to elaborate on this rather sensitive outcome but posing such an inquiry could be construed as being rather offensive not to mention humiliating for accused adulterer - you'll have to admit asking such a question would require a high degree of subtlety . Besides Borderline to descend to such depths might set a worrying precedent which could precipitate Borderline becoming nothing more than a litany of scandal and idle gossip. No way.
The thing is that for all the millions being spent on the Albury Airport there is a nagging suspicion that it's in the wrong place - in a valley is generally not a good place for an airport. This has led to the airport being fogbound and subsequently closed so far for 25 days this winter. This is not good for business as appointments have to be cancelled, apologies made. After all Albury is quite proud of its airport being the second largest regional airport in New South Wales. With over 200 flights a week and carrying over 300,000 passengers, it's a far from satisfactory situation. Then again that's the price you have to pay when you don't accept good advice. Have you noticed as the years go by Albury seems to have less frosts and more fogs. Has it something do with climate change - who knows. One thing is for sure that the airport is the wrong place and Albury was warned about it years ago in the early 1930's by one Edward Gallop an engineer on the new road being to connect Albury to the Hume Dam. Mr Gallop had seen active service with the Australian Imperial Australian Imperial Force with 3rd Field Company, Engineers in France. He went on to become permanent head of the Housing Commission of New South Wales and became a champion of public housing. Come to think of it we could do with such a person now considering the deplorable level level of homelessness in NSW.
In the thirties Albury Airport was a dirt strip but even then Mr Gallop said the airstrip was in the wrong place because it was enclosed by hills and was in a valley which made it prone to being fogbound in winter. No one took any notice of him and the airport continued to develop in its present location.
Where the airport should have been located Mr Gallop said was in Jindera because when Albury is fogbound once you get over the Jindera gap the air is mostly clear - ask anyone who makes the trip from Albury to Jindera. Having the Airport out Jindera way would guarantee the reliability of services in Winter. After all in this competitive world you can't have a major regional airport closed on so many days.
You also have the prospect of the airport as development continues eastward that the airport will be hemmed in by residential and industrial development that if God forbid there was a crash of an aircraft there could well be a considerable loss of life.
Has the Albury City Council given the matter any attention to the matter and perhaps acquired some land out at Jindera. Of course not - that's long term planning. On another matter Borderline remembers a chap - forget his name and he's long since gone to his maker. He was a rich man in the forties or was it the fifties anyhow he had sufficient liquidity that he could afford to buy his own aircraft. One day he decided to fly to Tallangatta. He landed his aircraft in a paddock adjacent to a Tallangatta hotel and was having a few beers when a he struck up a conversation with a fellow patron. The pilot in the course of the conversation told his fellow drinker that the plane over in the adjacent paddock was his. The fellow drinker was not inclined to believe him and bet him a couple of beers that he couldn't fly it. The pilot accepted the wager enthusiastically. After a couple of of loop-the -loops and a few other aerial manoeuvres over the pub which no doubt convinced the assembled drinkers of his skill with the aircraft the pilot realised night was approaching (no runway lights then)and he flew back to Albury. Arriving at Albury Airport in near darkness he got in his car and drove back to Tallangatta to claim his prize. Those were the days.
