A single Perth resident was responsible for more than 21,000 complaints about aircraft noise over Western Australia’s capital last year.
The 21,716 silent protests by serial complainants accounted for 40 percent of the 51,589 aircraft noise complaints filed nationwide in 2023.
That’s equivalent to filing an objection every 25 minutes, or about 56 per day, for an entire year.
The unnamed complainant topped a list of five people who filed 30,543 complaints during the period, about 60 percent of the national figure.
His contacts with the Noise Information and Complaints Service were revealed in a submission by Airservices Australia to a federal inquiry into aircraft noise.
Rounding out the top five were four people who complained a total of 9,827 times about noise at Brisbane and Archerfield, the Queensland capital’s secondary airport.
A single Perth resident was responsible for more than 20,000 complaints about aircraft noise over Western Australia’s capital last year. stock image
The angriest Sydney resident made 852 objections and another made 672. Hobart was next on the list with one person reaching their limit 527 times.
Brisbane’s highest total was 500, while no one in Melbourne made the top 10.
Airservices Australia monitors noise at airports in Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Essendon, Adelaide and Perth.
Its Noise and Flight Path Monitoring System (NFPMS) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, collecting data from every plan entering and leaving each facility.
Last year there were more than double the number of complaints than in 2022: 51,589 compared to 25,178.
But there was a relatively small difference in the number of complainants, which were 5,035 and 4,768 respectively.
The inquiry has received more than 80 submissions from interested parties including airports, airlines, tourism forums and environmental groups.
One Brisbane resident who wrote a submission said the “casual acceptance” by aviation policy makers that aircraft noise was a necessary inconvenience was “depressing”.
The 21,716 silent protests by a serial complainer accounted for 40 percent of the 51,589 aircraft noise complaints filed nationwide in 2023. stock image
“These are people who do not suffer the consequences of their policies, who have never lived on a busy flight path, who do not know the extreme distress and damage caused, and who do not recognize the investigations into the damage caused by the airplane noise,”‘ they wrote.
‘For me, the problem is not only the multiple flights every night that prevent a good night’s sleep, but the injustice and evasion I have encountered when trying to make my voice heard before those who treat citizens as statistics.
“There is something intensely irritating and deeply offensive about the intrusion of the roaring crescendo of airplane noise interrupting your life.”
NFPMS uses long-term noise monitors located within communities and, according to Airservices Australia, is the largest and most geographically widespread system of its type in the world.
Some monitors have been installed for more than 20 years.
The inquiry into aircraft noise is being led by Parliament’s Transport and Rural and Regional Affairs References Committee.
The research examines the impact and mitigation of aircraft noise on residents and businesses in capital cities and regional cities.
The committee is due to report in October.
