Narromine Shire mayor Craig Davies has declared "the sky is the limit" for its aviation precinct after officially receiving a grant of $450,000 to build three hangars on a planned new industrial park.
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Rain is hindering the construction of the 22-lot Narromine Aviation Industrial Park where the new hangars will be built on separate lots.
They will be available only to aviation-related businesses, both domestic and international.
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Cr Davies spoke of the growing aviation precinct at Narromine Aerodrome diversifying the shire's economy and generating jobs, including "good high-tech jobs into the future", when visiting the Dubbo office of Member for Parkes Mark Coulton on Thursday morning.
The mayor met with Mr Coulton and Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia Keith Pitt before he announced the grant from the $15 million second round of the Murray-Darling Basin Economic Development Program.
What we are aiming to build is a very high-tech industrial park.
- Narromine Shire mayor Craig Davies
Mr Coulton has been escorting Mr Pitt around the Parkes electorate which has received more than $3.4 million in second-round grants from the program supporting "economic development projects" in communities impacted by water recovery under the basin plan.
Mr Pitt said the hangars would "assist in positioning the region as an aviation hub" while Mr Coulton, who is Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government, argued it would help "attract more investment to the region".
Cr Davies told of aviation-related businesses continuing to approach the council.
In July, sustainable aerospace company AMSL Aero announced it would test its electric Vertical TakeOff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles at the industrial park later this year.
"This is an aircraft that will be capable in the next three years of carrying six passengers..from Narromine to Sydney and back," Cr Davies said on Thursday.
"Once they have their hydrogen cell tech developed, they will be able to do that on $34 worth of fuel.
"Apart from that they are also developing the technology that will allow that to fly without a pilot."
On Thursday the mayor revealed "Korean interest" in bringing airships to Narromine which could "look at the earth's crust to a depth of 200 metres" for purposes such as geological surveys and finding water.
"A number of drone companies are interested in establishing in the shire," Cr Davies said.
The industrial park is 800 metres from the expanding Skypark residential estate where residents can have hangars in their backyards.
Cr Davies said the industrial lots earmarked for the new hangars may be leased out by the council to generate income for "years ahead".
The Narromine Shire mayor welcomed the grant and paid homage to the founders of the aviation precinct.
"..by making this a centre of excellence it allows us to basically say thank you to those people who did put so much effort into this park in the early days," he said.
