General News
10 April, 2025
Airshow provides momentum for future
“Having the Douglas DC-3 there was very, very nostalgic, especially for those people that used to travel out of Tooraweenah away on the DC-3,” Mark Pitts said.
“And we did get a lot of people who had come to the event because of that, because of the old days that you know that it was very much part of their lives to be able to travel to Sydney or wherever.”
State member for Barwon, Roy Butler was also in attendance, and the Mountain View Hotel and caravan park did well from the event.
“I believe the pub was very busy that night. Obviously the community benefited, there was a full caravan park and all the accommodations booked out. We had a community barbecue at the pub on Saturday night, it was sold out. And it’s just a good feel for all of the community.”
“Roy (Butler) is obviously extremely impressed what a ABAM is trying to achieve, and he’s seen the progress that we’re making out on the aerodrome.”
With the ABAM 2025 Airshow such a large undertaking, the committee will now take a short break before they consider further events or a long-term program. “I think, I think it’s too early,” he said. “We can do an event every year, but whether it’s in a massive airshow like this, or whether we do something biannually, we’ve had air rallies before, which work, well.”
“We’ve got to sit down as a committee, yep, and see what we’re ready for next. Obviously, that is still our focus is on achieving those other things and getting the keeping the airport busy.
“We want activity there. And that activity will attract tourism to the area. So we want everyone to benefit from it.
Asked what activity the ABAM wants regularly at Tooraweenah aerodrome, Mark said simply said pilots and aeroplanes using the aerodrome.
At the moment, ABAM do not have shower and toilet facilities at the aerodrome. They want to start that process and set up an aviation museum to honour Arthur Butler. “Our first couple of steps is to get power and water,” he explained. “And then shower and toilet facilities, and we want to keep it looking 1940s 1950s, all the buildings, anything that we put in there, so we’re maintaining the image of what it would feel like to be flying in those days.
“We want to keep that historical feel for Tooraweenah and keep the uniqueness of Toora. And once we’ve got those shower and toilet facilitators, we can promote camping under the wings for pilots that are travelling around by air, which they do on air holidays. They can stop in at Tooraweenah and they can have a shower.
“They can camp under the wing. They can spend a night or two nights or whatever. And that’s a big attraction for pilots.”
“We’ll still need to rent more facilities for larger events, and then, obviously, if we can get the museum or the original hangar back and then put the museum in.”
A dedicated sports professional who currently works in rugby union development for NSW Rugby, Mark has also been a professional boxing trainer for the likes of Grahame ‘Spike’ Cheney and also previously ran professional surfing tours in the Philippines. “I’m used to the high adrenaline and pressure,” he said. “I’m a bit like those pilots you know, used to the that where you get ready for that hyper vigilant stuff.
“I just felt pretty relaxed and was able to be able to go and talk to people. And I think, you know, the teamwork done by everyone just allowed myself to actually enjoy the event.”
Mark was quick to acknowledge this event is about his grandfather and said the ABAM committee which has Gary Weston as president and Brendan Butler (no relation to Arthur) as the other vice-president do an amazing job. “I’ve had a pretty interesting life, so, but this is more my grandfather’s legacy,” he said. “Our entire committee did a fantastic job.”
It was also remarkable for Paul Bennet Airshows to be at Toora given just eight days earlier one of their experienced pilot Glenn Collins had been critically injured in an accident at an airshow at Avalon, Victoria. Glenn Collins has so far survived the incident and is in a critical but stable condition.
“I think the main thing that we will look at this is, well, Paul Bennett himself, absolutely loved Toora - they want to come back,” he said.
