RFDS pilots make highway landings as key Nullarbor airstrip still unsealed

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) continues to face risky landings along a remote stretch of outback highway after a long wait to seal a key airstrip on the Nullarbor Plain.Sitting 1,200 kilometres east of Perth on the WA-SA border, the Eucla Airstrip is 500km west and 700km east from the nearest available hospitals.But its unsealed runway renders it unusable after wet weather, posing problems for RFDS pilots and their remote patients.While $3.3 million was allocated in the 2024 state budget for an upgrade, bureaucratic and planning delays have prevented work from getting underway.Wet weather landingsThe consequences of the delays were highlighted on October 7, when rain from a strong storm front closed the airstrip.With a patient requiring urgent transfer from Eucla's nursing post to Kalgoorlie Hospital, the RFDS aircraft was required to land on the Eyre Highway.The upgrades will involve sealing the Eucla airstrip to reduce closures due to wet weather. (Supplied: WA government)Police closed the highway in both directions for about two and a half hours to allow the aircraft to land and take off.RFDS pilot Elias Hoch said the road landing required extra preparation, including a low pass to check the road surface, traffic and nearby signposts before touching down.The road is about 9 metres wide, leaving little room for error, and the aircraft had to be pushed backwards by members of the public to face into the wind for take-off.Police have to close the Eyre Highway for more than two hours each time a plane needs to land. (Supplied: Syloan Henderson-Wilson/RFDS WA)"A road is quite a lot skinnier than even quite a narrow runway, so it throws off your depth perception a little bit," Mr Hoch said. "And that sort of adds a little layer of challenge to the landing."Ongoing delaysShire of Dundas president Laurene Bonza said the council had spent about 15 years lobbying for the upgrade."We have had a funding commitment from the state government about two years ago and that's not progressing very quickly at all," she said.Laurene Bonza says the long-awaited airstrip upgrade needs a clear path from planning to construction. (ABC Goldfields: Jarrod Lucas)"So we keep getting further away from actually getting it done. The money that I've said we can have now won't be enough unless they're going to give us a bit more."A state government spokesperson said the funding remained available, but the project required a full redesign, environmental clearance and confirmation of native title permissions to proceed.As little as 3mm of rain can make the Eucla airstrip unserviceable. (Supplied: Shire of Dundas)But Cr Bonza said native title clearance had been completed four times over, and extensive investigation rendered the redesigns unnecessary."It feels like we're doing the same surveys and we haven't actually made any real progress on getting the job done," she said.The president said the repeated delays meant the project's initial $4.5 million cost was likely to rise.Residents frustrated by delaysEucla Roadhouse owner Rasa Patupis, who has lived on the border for 60 years, said she had pushed for the upgrade for almost 30 of them."One patient who had suspected appendicitis, it took them 11 hours to get to Kalgoorlie by ambulance, which is not, obviously, a good idea," she said."We've written letters to the ministers appropriate at the time, we've done personal requests. It's just been a list that just seems to fall on deaf ears."Ms Patupis said it had been frustrating to see infrastructure developed in more remote locations, as their wait continued.Rasa Patupis has lived in Eucla for 60 years. (ABC Goldfields: Rhiannon Stevens)"What would it mean? Some sort of assurance if something's happened out there with my staff, the locals or a traveller, that we can feel assured that we can get these people out in time-critical times," she said.Katherine O'Dea, who grew up on the Nullarbor, said local families had previously helped maintain the runway using their own equipment."We had to get safety people out to stop cars from coming on the highway or driving on the highway when we're expecting a plane to come in," she said."It can genuinely be a matter of life and death as to whether the airstrip is functional or otherwise."Ms O'Dea said those operations were a "logistical nightmare", and believes the airstrip should have been sealed years ago.