The Ghost Runway

The Ghost Runway addresses critical paralysis of communities caught between escalating climate emergencies, loss of local stewardship, an urgent need for systemic social justice. It tackles three interconnected needs:
1. Crisis of Climate Adaptation: It exposes the painful friction. A community deeply split over whether to return a scarred landscape to nature or maintain it as interventionist infrastructure (aerial bushfire response) to survive increasingly catastrophic fire seasons.
2. Loss of Regional Guardianship: It explores the vulnerability of critical community assets when they lose lifelong stewards like Rod Hay, leaving a vacuum filled by bureaucratic inertia, decay, and community division.
3. Demand for Systemic Social Change: It confronts outdated frameworks of land ownership. By focusing on the Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council’s claim, the film addresses the need to shift from commercial aviation battles to true Indigenous land stewardship and decolonisation.

Our impact vision is to transform a localised land dispute into a national conversation on how Australia navigates the climate crisis, honours historical stewardship, and embraces First Nations land justice.
Through Katoomba Airfield, the film aims to dismantle the rigid binary pitting environmental preservation against human survival. By weaving together the bushfire resilience insights of Greg Mortimer OAM, the legacy of Rod Hay, and the systemic change driven by the Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council, The Ghost Runway serves as a blueprint for the Anthropocene.
Ultimately, we envision the film as a catalyst for community healing and policy change—inspiring regional Australia to move away from colonial models of land management and toward collaborative, Indigenous-led stewardship that protects both our fragile wilderness and our vulnerable communities from a radicalised climate.

Catalyse Australia-Wide Discussion on Climate Adaptation: By showcasing the tension between wilderness preservation and aerial bushfire defence, the film aims to spark vital community conversations on how we balance environmental protection with human safety in a warming world.
Inspire a New Era of Environmental Guardianship: By honouring the 16-year legacy of Rod Hay alongside insights from Greg Mortimer OAM, the film aims to inspire viewers to look beyond systemic paralysis, encouraging active, localised leadership in the face of the global climate crisis.
Champion Indigenous Land Stewardship: The documentary seeks to amplify the Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council’s claim, shifting the public narrative away from commercial or bureaucratic battles and toward a powerful model of decolonisation and healing Country.

Our connection to the Blue Mountains community is deeply rooted in local trust and long-term relationships. Rather than operating as outside observers, our team has a lived understanding of the region’s environmental vulnerability and tight-knit social landscape. Over several years, we have built authentic partnerships with local Rural Fire Service (RFS) volunteers, conservationists, and the aviation community who flew alongside Rod Hay. This grassroots presence has granted us unparalleled access to personal archives, emotional first hand accounts, and the opposing sides of this delicate local debate. Crucially, our access is guided by a strict commitment to ethical storytelling. We have engaged respectfully with the Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council and key local voices like Greg Mortimer OAM. This ensures the documentary is not an outsider’s extraction of a local conflict, but an authentic, community-backed platform exploring the realities of climate resilience and land rights.

Advocate for Collaborative Land-Use Models: We will provide resources via our impact campaign for viewers to lobby local and state policymakers. The goal is to champion flexible, collaborative frameworks that reject outdated binaries, allowing environmental preservation and emergency climate defence to coexist. Engage in Local Climate Resilience and Bushfire Preparedness: The film will urge regional viewers to move past political paralysis and actively participate in community-led climate adaptation. This includes volunteering with or supporting local Rural Fire Service (RFS) brigades and participating in localised emergency infrastructure planning.