Greenvale was rocked by a sonic boom that shattered windows. But locals say the silence from the RAAF has been deafening
Greenvale, population 192, is best known for a Slim Dusty song about the local pub, the Three Rivers hotel. Located about 250km west of Townsville, the median age of residents is 20 years older and $1,000 poorer each week than the state median; it could be fairly characterised as a quiet, sleepy retirement community.
At 10.37am on 26 June 2023, that quiet was shattered by a gigantic blast in the sky.
'I was at work at the hotel, and we just heard this massive noise, blast, boom-type thing. It was scary,' says Dinka Marovic, a Three Rivers hotel employee.
'Some ran to the gas bottle thinking that the gas bottles blew up. I thought that a semi had hit the front of the pub … we came all back together, and that's when we noticed the ceiling starting to come down.'
The 'blast' was an F-35, the most advanced aircraft in the Royal Australian Air Force, breaking the sound barrier directly overhead.
The shockwave in its wake shattered windows, smashed light fittings and shook roofs.
But since then there's been silence from the air force, locals say. For two years phone calls have gone unanswered. Repeated complaints have resulted in no action. Unable to afford replacements – and with no local tradespeople – shattered windows are still replaced with temporary timber boards.
The local MP, Robbie Katter, says the lack of response by the defence force has 'really got my back up'.
'It almost seems as though they're that remote, that no one's going to listen to them,' he said.
Louise Fletcher, the owner of the Three Rivers hotel, has lived in Greenvale for 19 years.
'We actually did have CCTV footage of it, you can see our ceiling drop,' she says. 'It drops probably 15cm. And then it goes up and down.'
The suspended ceiling was knocked off its clips. Only quick repairs kept it from collapsing to the ground.
When the dust settled the damage appeared to be contained to about 14 homes in a straight line across town.
At the time, Paula Ransom was the treasurer of the Greenvale Progress Association.
She says about 21 windows were shattered, out of 133 dwellings in the area. In the years since, some homes have started to leak.
She is in no doubt that the huge boom was caused by a supersonic jet. The sound is different, she says: you'll hear an ordinary plane coming, but this one didn't crescendo or decrescendo – it was suddenly loud and then instantly over, like an extremely loud gunshot.
'I lived in Townsville when the jets first came to the RAAF base in Townsville,' she says. 'In the 70s and the 80s, the boys all wanted to play games with their jets.
'It was a definite boom.'
One resident says the noise caused her such a shock she called for medical help.
'I went close to a second heart attack,' she said. 'It was bloody terrifying.'
Ray Smith said the jet came over 'hard and fast and low'.
'The whole houses shook,' he said.
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Smith had a window shatter and another damaged. He's left a hole where the damaged one used to be because he can't afford to replace it.
A spokesperson for the Department of Defence said the episode occurred in the Townsville restricted airspace 'within an area where overland supersonic airspeeds are approved'.
'Defence received eight noise complaints and reports of property damage, with three of these complaints referred for compensation,' the spokesperson said. 'The Department is committed to working with communities that are impacted by Defence operations, including compensation where liability is evident.
'Where possible, air force avoids known noise sensitive areas, townships and other areas of significant activity; however, the conduct of flying operations is vital for Defence preparedness. Air force operates under control measures to minimise the impact of aircraft activity on local residents where reasonably practicable.'
A sonic boom is caused when an object breaks the sound barrier – travelling faster than the speed of sound. The speeding jet aircraft carries a wave of sound behind it like a wake, which breaks on a relatively narrow 'carpet' of ground after it passes over.
It's so loud it can even be used as a weapon; a high-speed pass designed to intimidate or suppress rather than kill.
It's for this reason that supersonic flight over land has been banned in the US since 1973.
Peter Carter from Carter Capner Law says there is no similar legislation prohibiting supersonic flight in Australia, even over a major city like Sydney or Melbourne.
But he says Defence could be sued for causing building damage through a civil action 'and there is no liability exemption unless the aircraft was engaged in active military operation which necessitated that flight path'.
If flying over Greenvale was an operational necessity, it should have been done at an altitude well above the risk of damage to the ground, he says.
Ransom estimates that she contacted the defence force to demand an explanation within weeks. Two more complaints have led nowhere.
Katter describes the defence force response as 'indifference at best'.
'Maybe I'm paranoid, but I can't be blamed for thinking that they've taken advantage of the fact that these are people without means that aren't often heard.'
Ransom says nobody is wealthy enough to book tradespeople to drive out from Townsville or Charters Towers.
The matter simply would not be swept under the carpet in a big city, she says, where a sonic boom would leave thousands windowless.
'You would not get away with it,' she says. 'This is a small town of a couple of hundred people at the most where we do tend to have a lot of the outback attitude of 'she'll be right, mate'. But this, this won't be right.'
Watch TenNewsFirst at 5pm to see the residents of Greenvale tell their story.
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