Mackay Tower

Tower Information, Views and History Location - Mackay Airport, Mackay, Queensland Postal Address -PO Box 4019, South Mackay, QLD 4746 Height - Date Constructed - 1971

In its day, Mackay Tower, was towards the deluxe end of the price spectrum and its completion heralded the end of this genre for Australian Airports. Control Towers since then have been built using the RSJ steel framework with metal cladding and single glazing. Mackay Tower is a cylindrical concrete structure with huge glass windows imported from Belgium, one inch thick and weighing 600 lbs each.

Mackay Tower is currently staffed by a team of five, providing coverage from 8:30am to 8:40pm. This wasn't always the case and in years gone by the staff consisted of up to eight people and hours of coverage were from 6am to 9pm with variations to suit airline traffic schedules. Up to this point in time no fewer than 37 controllers have done their out-station stint in this tower - some on more than one occassion.

The tower has a generous cab whose interior has lastest very well. In thirty years there has been one general refit to the built-in furniture, several years ago, and more recently some work was carried out on console cabinet enhancing the overall appearance remarkably.

It is arguably the office with the best view in Mackay. Views of rolling ranges from south through west, to the Pioneer Valley famous for its sugar production to the northwest, with picturesque mountains adjacent to the coast; then to Brampton Island in the distance and further south to Keswick, St Bees and Scawfell Islands.

To the east and south-east are the islands of Flattop and Roundtop within 10km and they mark the northern boundary of the Hay Point anchorage. Hay Point is the largest coal terminal in the world and on occassions up to fifteen bulk carriers have layed at anchor waiting their turn to load coal for different ports around the world. These ships are more than passing interest to tower controllers as they generate a great deal of helicopter traffic, transporting marine pilots and provisions to and fro.

Recently a TSAD (Tower Situational Awareness Display) was installed. Basically it is a radar display fed from the TAAATS complex in Brisbane and it is displayed on a PC screen.

( Information sourced from an article from Airservice's Airspace magazine, authored by Dick Andrews )

Facilities

Mackay Airport runways are 14/32 (1981M) and 05/23 (1344M). The airport is served by non-precision approaches using NDB, VOR, DME or GPS.