Avalon Airport pushes NT-style outdoor quarantine base proposal

“The whole idea would be to fly people in from overseas and see them effectively walk to a quarantine area for 14 days, reducing the needs for buses,” he said.

“They would be self-contained units like Howard Springs but more modern and isolated away from other passengers or any of the public. We have a lot of land available.

“It would also allow for easy access to Melbourne and Geelong if people needed medical attention.”

Currently, all international flights into and out of Avalon Airport are grounded, with four domestic flights a day to the Gold Coast and Sydney continuing out of a separate terminal nearby.

Mr Giddings said the plan could also allow private charter flights to land at the airport, opening up potential travel for AFL players and staff ahead of the upcoming season, or cater for international jets such as those recently refused arrival for the now-cancelled Bells Beach Rip Curl Pro.

Increasing the number of international flights arriving into Victoria would also reduce the cost to passengers, he said.

“We’re happy to work with the government on this. We’re in early discussions at the moment,” he said.

“Hopefully they can sit down with us and get this going.”

The plan comes amid another hard lockdown for Victorians after the highly infectious UK strain of coronavirus leaked out of the state’s hotel quarantine program.

There are currently 21 cases of COVID-19 in Victoria, 17 are linked to the Holiday Inn cluster, including 14 that spent time outside the hotel quarantine environment with “significant community exposure”, Victoria’s COVID-response commander Jeroen Weimar revealed on Monday.

The airport’s written quarantine proposal, seen by The Age, was put forward this month and touts the facility as being a highly secure site, complete with a fenced in compound, security office, CCTV and commercial kitchens.

The facility – 50 kilometres south-west of Melbourne – includes an outdoor sand running track, basketball courts and a BBQ area that could be used to provide fresh air and sunshine for those in quarantine, while avoiding contact with the wider community.

The proposal says all passengers would need to be tested prior to departing their country of origin and obtain a negative result before being processed by the Department of Health and retested on arrival.

Avalon Airport is controlled by the Department of Defence and leased to the Linfox Group.

Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on Monday that the state government was in a “number of discussions” about setting up a remote quarantine facility for Australians returning from overseas.

“No decision has been made. At some sites with very large amounts of space and an international airport located just next door, that’s obviously got some real strength,” Mr Andrews said.

“That could work well for, say, charter flights, where the Australian government can direct those flights to land wherever they choose.

“I doubt that would work quite as well for some of the commercial flights that are coming back ... I expect they would want to land at Melbourne Airport. I can’t speak for them but that would be my active assumption.

“We are working on a whole range of different issues, just like [Queensland Premier] Annastacia [Palaszczuk] is working on the Toowoomba option. Hopefully we can have a productive discussion at national cabinet.”