Busselton Margaret River Airport - Draft Noise Management Plan (2025)

Consultation has concluded

The City of Busselton has undertaken a review of Busselton Margaret River Airport Noise Management Plan (NMP) 2022 and a draft NMP (2025) has been prepared.

The City of Busselton is inviting public comments to the Draft Busselton Margaret River Airport Noise Management Plan (2025) commencing from Monday 3 February 2025 and closing on Monday 17 February 2025.

Submissions received will be considered by Council prior to a final, Draft Noise Management Plan being provided to the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority.

Background

The City of Busselton implemented the first Busselton Regional Airport Noise Management Plan (NMP) in 2012. Since then, the City has undertaken a number of reviews in consultation with the community and sought approval from the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority (OEPA) to update the NMP.

As part of the BMRA Development Project which commenced in 2015, the City undertook full review of the then NMP (2015) and proposed amendments that would allow for interstate and future international jet air services. Following community consultation and extensive consultation with the OEPA, the amended NMP was approved on 27 December 2018 (May 2018) in accordance with Ministerial Statement 1088 by the Minister for Environment; Disability Services. Since approval in 2018, two further reviews have been undertaken with non-material amendments made to the NMP resulting in the current version of the NMP (January 2022).

Ministerial Statement 1088 not only includes the conditions for managing noise emissions from the BMRA but also requirements for the review of the NMP, including a review within three months of each three year period, from the date of issue of the Statement. The review is to include, but not be limited to:

1) Noise monitoring results;

2) Noise amelioration assessments and/or implementation;

3) Number of complaints received and actions taken to resolve complaints;

4) Published flight paths to minimize impacts; and

5) The findings of the review to determine the effectiveness of the Busselton Margaret River Airport Noise Management Plan and whether amendments to the Plan are required.

The City of Busselton has undertaken a review of the BMRA NMP (2022) and proposing the following amendments to the plan;

NMP January 2022
*Chapter heading*	*Section heading*	*Reason for update*
Introduction	(pg 7)	An overarching objective has been added for the NMP.
Introduction	Understanding Noise (pg 7)	This section is proposed to be removed and content placed on the BMRA website, under the Environment page. This has been proposed as information relating to aircraft noise is regularly updated and with a three-year review cycle for the NMP can result in being out of date. By placing this on the website this can be updated as required.
Introduction	Who is responsible for aircraft noise management? (pg 10)	Information relating to Air Services Australia has been placed higher in the table order.
Introduction	Who is responsible for aircraft noise management? (pg 11)	Update to Federal Government department name and addition of reference to the Aviation White paper.
Airport Operational Activities	(pg 13)	Addition of Sources of Aircraft Noise
Airport Operational Activities	Sources of Airport Noise (pg 13)	This section has been added to provide information various sources of possible aircraft noise.
Noise Abatement Procedures	(pg 14)	New map inserted.
Standard Hours of Operations	Table 2 (pg 16-17)	** Note moved from Open, Closed Charters, RPT/Commercial Operators line to further doen in the table.
Flight training Guidelines	9. Licence Renewal Training (pg 20)	Grammatical changes for clarity.
Approvals for Special Events	Assessment of other applications (pg 21)	References to the Airport Advisory Committee have been removed as the Airport Advisory Committee is no longer a committee of Council.
Noise Complaints	(pg 23)	Contact details for Air Services Australia have been updated.
Noise Complaints	(pg 24)	References relating to the City of Busselton’s complaints management policy have been updated to reflect updated Council policy.
Noise Assessment and Monitoring	Noise Monitoring (pg 25)	Updated to reflect activities performed by the City’s Environmental Health team and external consultants.
Noise Assessment and Monitoring	Noise Measurement (pg 25)	Sentence referring to ANEF system deleted.
Noise Assessment and Monitoring	What are “Number Above’ noise contours (pg 26 & 27)	Reference to ANEC removed as the City is progressing with Air Services endorsed ANEFs and ANECs will not be used.
Noise Amelioration	Noise Reduction and Amelioration Measures (pg 28)	Federal government department name updated.
Noise Amelioration	Process for Amelioration Assessment (pg 31)	References to Airport Advisory Committee (AAC) removed as no longer a committee of Council.
Implementation and Review	(pg 34)	Updates to the Management Structure Table 10 to reflect changes to AAC.
Implementation and Review	Review process (pg 36)	References to Airport Advisory Committee (AAC) removed as no longer a committee of Council.
Appendix B	Busselton Margaret River Airport Fly Neighbourly Agreement Template (38 & 39)	Template updated to reflect changes in the NMP section headings and content where required.
Various	Various	Grammatical and formatting changes throughout the NMP.