When retiree Kim Crawford bought his waterfront home at Carlton River, east of Hobart, six years ago, he was attracted to the peaceful and laid-back lifestyle.
But he said his serenity has been destroyed.
There is now the constant sound of planes flying overhead from as early as 6am until as late as 10:30pm — something not there when he first bought the property.
"We are getting 32 planes a day coming in at just over 1,200 feet and generating noise levels of 75 decibels … it's just not acceptable for a residential area, " Mr Crawford said.
"It devalues the lifestyle I enjoy here; it was peaceful and quiet, but it's no longer like that."
Forcett resident Sharon Fotheringham also lives under a flight path and said the aircraft noise was having a negative impact on both her mental and physical health.
"Brain fog is a problem, broken sleep is a real problem, and as you can see, I constantly have dark rings under my eyes," she said.
"I suffer from chronic migraines, and the intensity and frequency of my migraines has increased since the planes have been flying over my home."
Listen to flight noise over Carlton River resident's home at 10:30pm
Problem shifted from community to community
The issue of flight paths in and out of Hobart Airport boiled over into anger when there was a change in 2017.
The introduction of a new satellite-based navigation technology — designed to reduce pilot and traffic control error and minimise conflict in the air — meant the number of available flight paths had to be reduced.
Suddenly, the spread of flights over towns around Hobart became concentrated — at first, over the communities of Dunalley and Boomer Bay, further east of Carlton River and Primrose Sands.
"Airservices implemented satellite approaches into Hobart Airport, but the problem is they didn't properly consult with communities," said Shannon Wells, the managing director of Hobart-based regional airline Par Avion.
"Suddenly these residents [of Dunalley and Boomer Bay] had every single plane flying over their house when they weren't there before."
Following fierce opposition and lobbying from those communities, Airservices Australia shifted the flight paths away from Dunalley in 2019 — and onto Carlton River, Primrose Sands and Forcett.
Anger from those communities means the service provider now has a new fight on its hands.
"When a plane goes overheard when I'm sleeping it sounds like a volcano is erupting, it rumbles on and on, and the noise is consistent throughout the night," Ms Fotheringham said.
"We want the flight paths changed, but if Airservices don't come to the party then we will be calling for a curfew on flights."
Mr Wells said that while there was no way to avoid planes flying over some residents, they had "every right to question it".
Airservices agrees to meet with residents
Airservices Australia will hold face-to-face and online meetings with affected residents over the coming weeks, starting from Monday afternoon.
It said the proposed Noise Abatement Procedures (NAPs) for Runway 30 aircraft arrivals at Hobart Airport were subject to community consultation.
"After we implement changes we conduct a review to understand if the air space is operating the way we expected, but importantly it gives the community the opportunity to raise concerns around flight path operations," Donna Marshall, head of community engagement at Airservices, said.
"As a result of the review, Airservices Australia has three recommendations that we are progressing with around noise improvements for communities."
One of the recommendations includes a noise-sharing arrangement which would see some operations taken away from the Primrose Sands area.
"It would mean airlines would use a longer path during a certain period of the day to give residents some respite, for example between 2pm to 10pm or overnight," Ms Marshall said.
"We are wanting the community to tell us if they prefer those times, or if they prefer that we don't do that at all."
Two other recommendations involve shifting the flight path three to five kilometres to the east away from Primrose Sands, or changing the flight path so planes would follow the coastline as they come into Hobart Airport, which Airservices said would be a much longer route.
"Those options are being designed at the moment and once we've done the safety and environmental assessment we will bring those out for community consultation," Ms Marshall said.
"We are trying to find locations where there are gaps between communities to provide a noise improvement".
Residents not convinced
While residents like Mr Crawford and Ms Fotheringham are hopeful of reaching an agreement with Airservices Australia, they believe there is still a long way to go.
"Noise sharing is not a solution, there will be bigger planes in future and this is why we want Airservices to find an alternative flight path," Mr Crawford said.
"Airservices are only consulting with us because we complained but I don't think anything is going to change anytime soon," Ms Fotheringham said.
"The two options that the community recommended will be looked at by Airservices and if these are implemented it would be extremely positive, but it's going to take another six months."
