A flight leaving Sydney tomorrow was 80 years in the making

For Matthew Hayes, the first passenger flight taking off tomorrow from the newly built Western Sydney International Airport (WSI) is a dream come true.

The 20-year-old transport enthusiast has been looking forward to a second major airport in Sydney since he was a child.

"I used to go with my mother down to the site of the [Badgerys Creek] airport. Back then it was just paddocks and hills, and livestock grazing along the way," he said.

"My mum would tell me, 'One day, when you're older, this is going to be a whole airport.'"

Now it is.

Mr Hayes was one of the trial passengers who tested the airport's new systems two months ago, alongside 80-year-old Kevin Appleby.

The Mount Druitt resident was a teenager when he first heard about the possibility of a second Sydney airport.

Separated by more than half a century, both men share the same excitement about the historic milestone.

The first flight from WSI to Gold Coast may take an hour and 20 minutes, but passengers embarking on that voyage will be completing a journey that began 80 years ago.

Where to put a second airport?

In the wake of World War II as aviation boomed, the question was already being asked; where should a second Sydney airport be built?

Federal and state governments have tried, failed and tried again to answer it since 1946.

Potential locations ranged from as far north as Wyong to as far south as Goulburn.

In 1964, a NSW government study recommended Towra Point in Botany Bay.

For the following decade, federal and state bodies, both jointly and separately, considered this location and others, including Richmond, Somersby and Duffy's Forest.

Within a year of Gough Whitlam's rise to power in 1973, his government selected Galston in north-west Sydney as the second airport's location.

Nearly 2,000 people travelled to Canberra to protest against the decision.

Back in Sydney, Whitlam faced a crowd of protesters in Baulkham Hills carrying placards reading "Don't pave paradise" and "No airport".

Less than a year later, the government reversed its decision, citing financial and environmental feasibility concerns, as well as the site's proximity to the Richmond RAAF base.

When an International Air Transport Association (IATA) report in 1976 concluded a second airport was unnecessary, attention shifted to expanding Kingsford Smith Airport in Mascot.

Three years later, a federal and state government group called Major Airport Needs Of Sydney (MANS) recommended a third runway be constructed at Kingsford Smith and advised that should a future need for a second airport arise, Badgerys Creek should be its location.

Over the years, committee after committee and study after study made conflicting recommendations as politicians played political football with the issue, without a shovel ever touching dirt.

In the end, 19 different sites across the state were considered before the Hawke government selected Badgerys Creek in 1986.

The government started buying up land in the Western Sydney suburb, which was mostly grasslands and cow paddocks at the time.

Protests over new airport

Regular protests against the project continued over the years, fuelled by noise and environmental concerns.

Several community groups organised campaigns, protests and events to agitate against a new airport.

Carolyn Wong's family has lived in Luddenham for 70 years and has been protesting against the airport for the majority of that time.

"I was allowed to take the day off school to go down to Canberra and protest, that was over 50 years ago," she said.

"We had a big protest at the Old Hubertus Club one day; the media came but it was the day Mrs Gandhi was assassinated so we didn't make it to the news."

A No Aircraft Noise Party was founded and contested the 1995 NSW state election, which was won by Labor's Bob Carr.

When John Howard's government took control in Canberra the following year, the location was back on the table, with an investigation launched into whether Holsworthy could be an alternative to Badgerys Creek.

By 1998, federal and state Labor MPs had formed a bloc called Labor Against Badgerys to oppose the construction of the airport.

They were joined by the Western Sydney Alliance of Councils, which vowed to fight the airport.

Subsequent governments would continue the painful back-and-forth until Tony Abbott's Coalition government in 2014 locked in Badgerys Creek as the site of the city's future second airport.

Funding and approvals took four years and construction began in 2018.

The greenfield site was transformed into Australia's largest civil earthmoving project outside of the mining sector.

Over the next eight years, the rolling green pastures of Badgerys Creek slowly disappeared and were replaced by a cargo precinct, passenger terminal and a 3.7-kilometre runway.

It took 10,000 workers to make the $5.6 billion airport a reality.

It has the capacity to move 1.8 million tonnes of cargo and 10 million passengers annually.

'Kick in the guts'

Cargo flights have been taking to the skies since July, confirming decades of angst and some local residents' worst fears about the project.

The round-the-clock freight flights have already caused many a sleepless night for residents living close to the airport.

Ms Wong and her daughter Katherine were considering moving away from the area due to the noise from overnight flights.

"It makes me sad that the airport is about to fully open; it really is the end of an era and our lives as we know it," she said.

"We still don't have access to the new buses, the rail isn't ready, the houses that need [sound] insulation haven't got it, the Luddenham Village Plan and zoning haven't been sorted.

"It's such a kick in the guts that they are opening it without addressing any of the community's concerns."

Seven passenger-carrying airlines have already signed up with WSI including Qantas, Jetstar, Air New Zealand and Qatar Airways, with flights to Doha, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City already scheduled.

Their jet trails will mark the end of a long and arduous chapter in the airport's development.