AIRPORT INVESTORS
Big ambitions
Peta Tomlinson fi nds out more about the transformation of Avalon Airport from a small airstrip outside Melbourne into one of Australia’s fastest emerging gateways.
Avalon’s founder, Lindsay Fox. T
he premier of the Australian state of Victoria, Ted Baillieu, is backing the construction of a rail link between Avalon Airport and downtown Melbourne. As part of his election manifesto, he announced that a Liberal
National Coalition government would invest A$50 million for the design, planning, land acquisition and preliminary construction works associated with the proposed rail link. He also confi rmed that the new government would provide Avalon Airport
with a tap-in connection to Shell Geelong’s pipeline, delivering aviation fuel directly to the airport. Avalon’s CEO, Justin Giddings, enthuses: “A rail link will provide an
enormous boost for the airport and passengers. It will also open up further opportunities for the Geelong region to strengthen its position as a key freight and logistics hub by improving connections between rail, land and sea for the wider domestic and international markets.” The possibility of the rail link becoming a reality is certainly
music to the ears of entrepreneur Lindsay Fox, who saw the potential in Avalon when his company Linfox acquired the gateway 14 years ago.
68 AIRPORT WORLD/FEBRUARY-MARCH 2011 Back then the airport was little more than a small airstrip on the outskirts
of Melbourne, but few questioned Fox’s judgment, for despite his business card stating his occupation as ‘truck driver’, the transport magnate is, in fact, one of Australia’s most successful businessmen. Indeed, since the day he left school and bought his fi rst truck, Fox has
been acknowledged as a man of vision. However, it is fair to say that when the Linfox transport and logistics founder
announced the ambitious plan to turn a rarely used airstrip in regional Victoria into a major aviation hub, not everyone thought he could do it. In fact, his goal for Avalon, located between Melbourne and
Geelong, was once called “one of the most ambitious transport projects ever planned in Australia”. Avalon Airport was fi rst opened in 1953, to cater for the production
of military aircraft. The single-runway facility was put to various uses over the years, including as a training facility for Australia’s Qantas and Japan’s All Nippon Airways. In 1997, after the government decided it was surplus to requirements, Linfox acquired Avalon Airport on a 100-year lease.
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