The consultant employed to test the noise levels of helicopters for the controversial heliport on Sydney Harbour has admitted he is not an acoustic engineer and has never previously produced a report on helicopter noise.
Carl Holden, director of the noise testing company, Airport Friendly Solutions, also conceded that he had been wrong to describe himself as a member of the "Australian Acoustics Society". The peak body, which is actually called the Australian Acoustical Society, told Fairfax Media Mr Holden has never been a member, although he used to subscribe to its magazine.
The first ''noise assessment'' report Mr Holden wrote for Newcastle Helicopters, the company planning to operate the heliport, has since been ridiculed by industry leaders and removed from the project's website.
That report was produced in October. Mr Holden was also involved in acoustic tests from residences around the harbour hastily commissioned by Newcastle Helicopters this week as opposition to the project mounted.
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Among protestors is Ian Kiernan who proposes some guerrilla tactics - the platform surrounded by the spear-like masts of protesting yachties.
''Wild Oats has got a 40-metre mast,'' he says darkly. ''We'll be putting yachts right around it, I tell you. Vertical spears - that will make it pretty hard for them.''
Kiernan, the founder of Clean Up Australia, is a voice in the chorus of protest building against the irresponsible project, which envisages operating up to eight flights an hour from a floating platform moving between some of the harbour's most spectacular locations.
The state government approved the heliport without an environmental impact statement, without a public tender, without public consultation and without noise-testing.
Coalition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has given the plan both barrels, describing it as a ''reckless and undemocratic'' disgrace.
''I'm terribly disappointed about it,'' Turnbull said. ''People will look at this and say, well, it's back to the old way of making decisions and letting people know afterwards.''
Turnbull and Kiernan say it is also the tinnie users, the yachties, the little racing skiffs holding weekly races, the people in parks and those on the beaches.
''The nightmare I've got in my mind is a combination of a summer's afternoon, many hundreds of boats out on the harbour, most of them sailing skiffs, a strong nor-easter, sailing races under way, and these helicopters landing. Seaplanes have to find somewhere with no boats. The problem for the helicopter is he has to land on the barge,'' says Turnbull. ''Who's going to be responsible the first time there is an accident ?''
The commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Malcolm Levy, is equally alarmed. He says the first he knew of the proposal was when he read about it in the press.
''The area I see designated on a plan shows quite a large part of the harbour … used continuously in yacht races and by recreational users. If there's going to be a barge stuck in the harbour, does that mean we are to stop what we've been doing?''
Safety concerns have barely been addressed in the government's initially enthusiastic pronouncements. The air safety regulator, CASA, says it is not involved in approving the project because the pontoon is not an aerodrome.
The National Trust has launched an urgent investigation into whether the proposed operations area for the helicopter platform will intrude on the buffer zone set up around the Opera House as part of the iconic building's World Heritage Listing.
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