In 1946, the Federal Government of the time first started identifying that Sydney’s aviation needs would need to be met by more than just the (at the time) rudimentary Sydney Airport at Mascot, which had opened a couple of decades earlier.
80 years later, Western Sydney International Airport opens its doors, or runways as it may be, this weekend.
It has been a long and winding road to get to this point.
Badgerys Creek was first identified, along with 10 other locations, as a potential site for a second airport in Sydney back in 1969.
In 1986, 40 years ago, Badgerys Creek was declared as the site for a new airport in Sydney.
Lock it in, Eddie. Or Hawkie, as it was.
And so began years of debates about land, flight paths, aircraft noise, environmental concerns and so on, as the on-again off-again journey of the airport began.
It’s long forgotten by many but we even had a sod turn back in 1992.
The Federal Aviation Minister Bob Collins got out his ceremonial shovel and got to work, with a promise planes would be flying by 1995.
Pigs too.
Politics, among other things, intervene and as governments change, so does the path for the airport.
In 2000, the Badgerys Creek plan was officially tossed out by John Howard.
All over red rover.
Prime Ministers and Opposition Leaders came and went, with the second airport question remaining largely unanswered and the future of Badgerys Creek always with a permanent cloud sitting over it.
Then in 2014, the most significant moment since Bob Collins and that shovel lands when Prime Minister Tony Abbott declares once and for all that Badgerys Creek will be the home of the new airport.
Turns out Hawkie was right.
Back in 2014, I’m not sure anyone quite believed it would happen.
I certainly didn’t.
I wrote a column that said I’d be dead and buried before a plane took off from Badgerys Creek.
I’m wrapping myself in cotton wool for the next couple of days but God willing, I’ll be proven wrong on Sunday morning.
It’s wild to think it has taken us this long to get here.
It hasn’t been for the faint-hearted.
The reason the journey took so long is that it has been easy to put Badgerys Creek in the too hard basket.
There was a theory, perhaps well-placed, for some time that the airport was a poison chalice politically.
That any government that agreed to build a 24-hour airport in a particular part of Sydney would be committing political suicide.
But we’ve come a long way since then. The surrounding communities, albeit in many cases still concerned about aircraft noise and other impacts, have started to realise the extraordinary economic growth, local jobs and overall benefits the airport will bring.
Despite all the missteps along the way, now is the perfect time for the airport.
Any earlier and it may indeed have been a white elephant.
This has been an extraordinary construction project, one that has largely been met with apathy from people in Penrith and other surrounding areas until recently.
People just didn’t believe it was actually happening.
Now it’s here, and it’s the biggest game-changer we will face in our lifetime.
So much has happened since that 2014 confirmation.
Tony Abbott is long gone as PM.
So is Malcolm Turnbull, who had less high-vis and shovel moments but plenty of things to say about the airport’s initial plans when he served as PM.
Scott Morrison got the honour of marking the start of construction. He likely knew he wouldn’t be there for its conclusion.
Anthony Albanese has jumped on board too, and I assume he’ll be there front and centre on Sunday with the largest pair of scissors he can find to cut the ribbon.
That’s the thing about projects like this.
They require vision from leaders who know they likely won’t be there to see it through.
It took us a while to get that vision, but we eventually found it.
Now, this weekend, the eight decade debate is buried once and for all.
We have our new airport, turbulence along the way and all.
