Victoria's aerospace industry

Citation

(2007), "Victoria's aerospace industry", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 79 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2007.12779daf.004

Victoria's aerospace industry

Victoria's aerospace industry

As the Australian International Airshow held at Avalon Airport every two years opened recently on the other side of the world, visitors to the show cannot fail to realise that they and 150 aerospace and defence companies cannot be wrong. In fact they are on to something very right, and that is Victoria in Australia.

The South East state of Australia (capital city is Melbourne) is home to these local and international companies doing business in the region's world- class, export-oriented aerospace industry. This trend to base an aerospace or defence related company in Victoria is a true reflection of the state's global success and long 90 year history as the country's aerospace and defence capital, which now employs over 5,000 people. The industry in the State alone turns over AUD600 million annually, and exports AUD250 million worth of aircraft, systems and components per annum, and accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the national aerospace industry in employment terms.

Victoria's aerospace industry specialises in manufacturing, research and development, education and employment. With Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, headquartering its Australian manufacturing operations in Victoria, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the region boasts a vibrant and dynamic environment in which multinational companies can thrive and succeed. Other multinationals that have caught onto the (very successful) idea of setting up shop in Victoria, including long established UK businesses, Thales ATM, BAE Systems and GKN Aerospace Engineering Services. Local aircraft manufacturer Gippsland Aeronautics is having success selling its light utility aircraft, the GA8 Airvan, to overseas customers, including the US Air Force Civil Air Patrol.

The centrepiece of the Victorian aerospace industry is the Port Melbourne precinct. The Port of Melbourne, Australia's largest and most modern container handling port, operates 24/7 and handles 40 per cent of Australia's overseas container trade. This is very appealing to large multinationals, as well as Victoria's extensive network of major roads and freeways which connect metropolitan Melbourne with the Port of Melbourne, the international airport and regional and interstate centres.

Melbourne is an attractive location for multinational companies looking to headquarter in the Southern Hemisphere, not only for its strategic location but the Melbourne Airport, the country's largest 24/7, curfew free, freight and passenger airport. Thanks to the Melbourne Airport, the city remains a dynamic gateway to the rest of Australia and the Asia Pacific region, with excellent supporting communications, IT infrastructure and a time zone advantage that suits global around the clock operations. The State can offer 24-hour engineering services across the globe and its world-class expertise in the aerospace industry, range from its advanced manufacturing capabilities, its dept in research and development, to its excellent infrastructure and outstanding education and training facilities.

UK-owned BAE Systems, through its Australian subsidiary BAE Systems Australia, has been operating in Australia for more than 50 years, and its weapons system division, based in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford, develops guided weapons and UAV systems for the company's military customers, including the Australian Department of Defence. On behalf of the Australian Defence Force, BAE Systems design, integrate and maintain the force's military systems. BAE's skills also lie in electronic warfare, battlespace communications, air defence and military air support, and one BAE's products which has been developed is the Nulka naval ship defence system which is exported to a number of overseas navies, including the United States Navy.

GKN Aerospace Engineering Services, another British owned, Port- Melbourne based company, established a design and engineering services office in Melbourne in 2001, “to service a global demand for aerospace engineering services”. The Melbourne headquarters now employs 250 engineers, 200 of which are involved in the Joint Strike Fighter Program under contracts from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. GKN has also taken lead of other major development project, including the Eurofighter military programme for BAE, and working closely with Airbus on the design of civil aircraft. “The primary reason for GKN's location in Melbourne was the resources pool in the aerospace industry,” says GKN Aerospace's head of commercial and business development, Mick Halloran. “Historically, from the perspective of the skills and experience, Melbourne has the depth of expertise for the numbers that we needed.”

The State of Victoria is also Australia's defence industry hub, home to the Defence Science and Technology Organisation's Platform Sciences Laboratory, Co-operative Research Centres for Advanced Composite Structures and Microtechnology and the Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre for Aerospace Design Technology. Victoria has demonstrated credentials on major defence projects such as the Joint Strike Fighter program, the AUD7 billion ANZAC frigates project, the assembly of F/A-18s for the RAAF and ADI's innovative High Mobility Engineering Vehicles, now being supplied to the US Army.

Australian Department of Defence – Defence Science and Technology Organisation Platform Sciences Laboratory, charged with ensuring that innovative science and technology is applied to Australian Defence applications and is the centre of expertise in technologies underpinning the design and operation of military platforms for the air, maritime and land environments. The Centre conducts research in relevant areas of material sciences, structures, propulsion and aerodynamics. The laboratory, then known as the Aeronautical Research Laboratories, originally developed the Black Box flight recorder over 50 years ago, through the work of Dr David Warren.

Melbourne is also Australia's cultural capital and was voted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2003 as the “World's Most Liveable City” – with a near perfect score based on outstanding scores for safety, culture and environment, education, recreation and infrastructure. Melbourne is blessed with a temperate climate and has a lively passion for eating and drinking, and is a sports mad city, hosting more major sporting events than any other city in Australia.

To find out more about trade and investment opportunities in Victoria, visit: www.invest.vic.gov.au