PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: With a population of 114,000, Toowoomba is Australia's second-largest inland city. Yet it's never had an airport capable of landing jets. This infrastructure oversight has held this region back for decades. But late last year, the problem was fixed with the opening of the first airport built in Australia since Tullamarine in Melbourne in 1970. Incredibly, the $200 million, 24-hour, curfew-free airport was built by the Toowoomba-based Wagner family. The Wagner family looms large in the business life of Toowoomba. The entrepreneurial spirit of brothers Denis, John, Joe and Neil has made the family Australia's 14th richest. The Wagners' story began with their stonemason father Henry, grew into a gravel, concrete and cement business and expanded into civil and oil construction projects around the world. Last year, the family moved into transport with a $200 million investment in the Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport outside Toowoomba. It's Australia's first privately-funded public airport.

DENNIS WAGNER, WAGNERS, TOOWOOMBA: To the team, can I just say, "We did it."

PIP COURTNEY: The Wagners built the airport with their own money on a 5,000-hectare farm they bought 20 years ago. But just as extraordinary as the size of the spend is the way they did it: on their own land, employing largely their own staff, using their own equipment and using raw materials taken from the property, including 10 million tonnes of rock.

DENNIS WAGNER: So we crushed the gravel for the runway, we crushed the concrete aggregate on site, we produced the concrete on site, we crushed the asphalt aggregate on site and we produced the asphalt on site. Very unique arrangement. We were the contractors that built the airport. We're also the owners and the operators of the airport.

PAUL ANTONIO, TOOWOOMBA MAYOR: Well what we've actually seen is the Wagners get on and do the job. They don't muck around. The Wagner family built that airport in 19 months and 11 days from sod-turning to CASA approval. Try any level of government and see where they'd be right now. We would still not have an airport, no matter which level of government was involved.

PIP COURTNEY: The community was invited to an open day before the official opening. 27,000 people turned up. And no wonder; they've needed a bigger airport for decades. Just four k's from the city, the loss-making Toowoomba Airport run by the council is built out and can't take jets. The new airport, with its 2.87 kilometre runway, can land jumbos. John Wagner says not having a jet-capable airport has held the region back for decades.

JOHN WAGNER, WAGNERS, TOOWOOMBA: I know trying to operate a multinational business out of a regional centre in Australia without an airport is very frustrating. And we would get our international customers - like Bechtel would come from Houston and say, "What's the airline that runs to Toowoomba?" Well, it was the Greyhound bus.

PIP COURTNEY: Because of pent-up demand for passenger and freight services, John Wagner never saw the investment as risky.

JOHN WAGNER: Absolutely not. I didn't lose one ounce of sleep over it. The dynamics of this region, given that we're one of the biggest agricultural producers in the country, we've got a big mining sector, big education and health sector, it just made a lot of sense. There were a lot of sceptics, particularly in the aviation industry, and to give them their dues, there hasn't been a public airport built in this country since Tullamarine about 50 years ago, so I could understand why they were sceptical.

PIP COURTNEY: The sceptics who thought the task impossible were silenced when the airport opened last November and the first flight from Sydney touched down.

JOHN WAGNER: It was a fantastic day. To see this beautiful city in which we live finally be able to take a decent-sized aircraft.

PAUL ANTONIO: And when you consider that not one cent of your money or my money, any taxpayers' money, has gone into this airport - it's all privately-funded - it is an amazingly leap of faith by the Wagner family in this community.

PIP COURTNEY: Two airlines use the airport - Qantas, with double daily flights to Sydney, and Rex, with daily services to Queensland country towns. They're talking to Virgin, and with four terminals and room to expand, there's space for more airlines. Private charter operators servicing the fly-in, fly-out market also use the airport. Freight isn't a sideline here. The Wagners intend to shake things up.

DENNIS WAGNER: It will certainly open this region up for exports of our produce all around the world. So we can have our produce on Asian plates at the same time that we currently have our produce on plates in Sydney and Melbourne. So it opens up a huge market for the whole ag' sector.

PIP COURTNEY: Here, the biggest trucks can drive right to the door, the wide roads designed just for them.

JOHN WAGNER: So typically, a road train has to break down into two trailers and do two trips into Brisbane or into Sydney. We can accommodate those vehicles here. So the whole estate has been designed for AV triples, four-lane road in, heavy axle loadings, they can pull up right at the front door of the freight terminal.

PIP COURTNEY: So do you think this is gonna be a more attractive operation for people to use who might now be using Brisbane or Sydney?

JOHN WAGNER: Well we believe so, not only from the producers' point of view, but also from the airlines' point of view. They're not limited here by curfew, which Sydney has, and they're not limited by slots, which Brisbane have.

PIP COURTNEY: John Wagner expects the first jumbo headed for Asia will fly out before Christmas, carrying produce from the region and he says the Chinese are excited.

JOHN WAGNER: The overwhelming message that I get on every single trip is that, "We want Australian produce." But what it will require is the local producers to take a step change in their thinking and invest and look outside the markets that they have been servicing. They're now close to Asia all of a sudden and we need to capitalise on that.

PIP COURTNEY: A local economic development association report predicts the new airport will have a big impact on the region.

JOHN WAGNER: By year five, the extra economic output was $450 million extra output for the Toowoomba local government area and 3,200 full-time jobs. So that's what airports are about: they're big economic enablers.

PAUL ANTONIO: There has never been a time when so much opportunity is in front of the food producers of this area, whether they be vegetable growers in the Lockyer Valley, whether they be fruit growers in the Granite Belt or whether they be cattle producers or whatever they might be. There is a real opportunity now for these people to really get serious about export.

PIP COURTNEY: Part of the development is an 800-hectare business park, catering for all types of businesses, not just aviation and transport.

JOHN WAGNER: So our first major tenant is Schlumberger, biggest oil and gas services company in the world. We see that the business park will cater for food processing, particularly that value-adding sector, where it can be value-added, straight on an aircraft overseas. And transport and logistics - we see that as a big part of our market. My message is to the federal and state governments is: stop talking about infrastructure and actually get in and do it. We need it now. We don't need it in 10 years' time. We need action right now.

PIP COURTNEY: There's still a lot to do here: increase the number of passenger flights, start and then build the freight business and fill the business park.

JOHN WAGNER: Every week without fail we've got Chinese through here, we've got Singaporeans, we've got merchant bankers, all coming to work out what's happening in Toowoomba. It's just a sensational place to live and invest at the moment.

PIP COURTNEY: Those who thought it couldn't be built are now waiting to see if the airport can turn a profit. So when do the Wagners think they'll recoup their big investment?

JOHN WAGNER: No, we haven't set ourselves a timeframe, but I expect that it will be cash flow positive in the not-too-distant future.